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THE
PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

PRINTED BY

MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED,
FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND co. LIMITED.

NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

The Religion and Philosophy of India

THE PHILOSOPHY

OF

THE UPANISHADS

BY

P A U L D E U S S E N

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF KIEL

AUTHORISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION
BY REV. A. S. GEDEN, M.A.

TUTOR IN OLD TESTAMENT LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, AND CLASSICS,
WESLEYAN COLLEGE, RICHMOND

EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET

1908

io?

Printed . . . 1906
Reprinted . . 100S

PREFACE

DR. DEUSSEN'S treatise on the Upanishads needs no formal
introduction or commendation to students of Indian
thought who are familiar with the German language.
To others I would fain hope that the translation here
presented, which appears with the author's sanction, may
serve to make known a work of very marked ability and
of surpassing interest. As far as my knowledge extends,
there is no adequate exposition of the Upanishads available
in English. The best was published by Messrs. Triibner
more than a quarter of a century ago, and is in many
respects out of date. As traced here by the master-hand
of the author, the teaching of the ancient Indian seers
presents itself in clearest light, and claims the sympathetic
study of all lovers of truth.

For the English rendering I am alone responsible.
And where I may have failed to catch the precise meaning
of the original, or adequately to represent the turn of
phrase, I can only ask the indulgence of the reader. Dr.
Deussen s style is not easy. And if a more capable hand
than mine had been willing to essay the task of trans
lation, I would gladly have resigned my office. With
whatsoever care I can hardly hope entirely to have

vi PREFACE

escaped error. But for any indication of oversight or
mistake, and any suggestion for improvement, I shall be
most grateful. The work has exacted many hours that
could be ill spared from a very full life. If however it
conduce in any way to a better understanding of the
mind and heart of India I shall be amply repaid.

A. S. GEDEN.
RICHMOND,

December 1U05.

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

THE present work forms the second part of my General
History of Philosophy. It is however complete in itself;
and has for its subject the Philosophy of the Upanishads,
the culminating point of the Indian doctrine of the
universe. This point had been already reached in Vedic,
pre-Buddhist times ; and in philosophical significance has
been surpassed by none of the later developments of
thought up to the present day. In particular the Sankhya
system has followed out lines of thought traced for it in
the Upanishads, and has emphasized realistic tendencies
already found there (infra, pp. 239-255). Buddhism
also, though of entirely independent origin, yet betrays
its indebtedness in essential points to the teaching of
the Upanishads, when its main fundamental thought
(nirvdnam, the removal of suffering by the removal of
trishnd) meets us expressed in other words (union with
Brahman by the removal of kdma) in the passage from
the Brihadaranyaka quoted below.1

The thoughts of the Vedanta therefore became for
India a permanent and characteristic spiritual atmosphere,
which pervades all the products of the later literature.

1 Brih. 4. 4. 6, infra p. 348.

vii

viii PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

To every Indian Brahman to-day the Upanishnd* are
what the New Testament is to the Christian.

So significant a phenomenon deserved and demanded
a more comprehensive treatment than it had yet obtained.
And my hope is to remove in some measure the cloud
which hitherto has obscured this subject, and to exhibit
order and consistency in place of the confused mass of
contradictory conceptions, which alone had been supposed
to exist. If the result is not a uniform and unified
system, there is yet found a regular historical develop
ment, the key to which is an original, abrupt and daring
idealism ; and this in its further progress by a twofold
concession, on the one hand to traditional beliefs, and on
the other to the empirical prepossessions natural to us
all, was gradually developed into that which we, adopting
Western phraseology if not always in a Western sense,
call pantheism, cosmogonism, theism, atheism (Sahkhya),
and deism (Yoga). Chap, ix., "The Unreality of the
Universe" (pp. 226-239), which by its paradoxical title
attracts attention and provokes contradiction, or the final
survey at the close of the book (p. 396 ff.), may well
serve as a first introduction to these oriental teachings.

o

A remarkable and at first sight perplexing feature in
this entire evolution of thought is the persistence with
which the original idealism holds its ground, not annulled
or set aside by the pantheistic and theistic developments
that have grown out of it. On the contrary it remains
a living force, the influence of which may be more or
less directly traced everywhere, until it is finally abandoned
by the Sankhya system. Adopted by the Vedanta it is
proclaimed as the only " higher knowledge" (para vidyd),

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR ix

and contrasted with all those realistic developments
which together with the creation and transmigration
doctrines are known as the "lower knowledge" (apard
vidya), and are explained as accommodations of the written
revelation to the weakness of human understanding.
This accommodation theory of the later Vedantist teachers
is not wholly baseless, and needs correction only in the
one point that this adjustment to the empirical capacity
of the intellect (which works within the relations of time,
space and causality) was not intentional and conscious,
but unconscious. In this shape the idea of accommodation
becomes a key which is fitted to unlock the secrets not
only of the doctrinal developments of the Upanishads,
but of many analogous phenomena in Western philosophy.
For the practice of clothing metaphysical intuitions in the
forms of empirical knowledge is met with not only in
India, but also in Europe from the earliest times. And
for that very reason no account would have been taken
of it had not Kant demonstrated the incorrectness of
the whole procedure, as I hope to show in detail in the

later parts of my work.

P. DEUSSEN.

CONTENTS

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHAPS:

THE SECOND PERIOD OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY, Oil THE CON
TINUANCE AND CLOSE OF THE TIMES OF THE BR&HMANAS

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF
THE UPANISHADS

PAGE

I THE PLACE OF THE UPANISHADS IN THE LITERATURE OF THE
VEDA .

1. The Veda and its Divisions .
2*. Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad .
3. The Upanishads of the three older Vedas
4' The Upanishads of the Atharvaveda .
5'. On the Meaning of the word Upanishad

II. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE UPANISHADS

1. The earliest Origin of the Upanishads • ^

2. The extant Upanishads 2f
3 The Upanishads in Badarfxyaiia and S ankara ^
4'. The most important Collections of Upanishads

HI THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION OF THE UPANISHADS AND ITS

oo— OU

SIGNIFICANCE .

1 The Fundamental Conception of the Upanishads .

2. The Conception of the Upanishads in its relation t ^

3. ThehiCoTception of 'the Upanishads in its relation to ^

Religion

xi

2

5

7

10

1C- 38

xii CONTENTS

PAOR

THE SYSTEM OF THE UPANISTTADS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . 51-53

FIRST PART: THEOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE
OF BRAHMAN

I. ON THE POSSIBILITY OF KNOWING BRAHMAN . . 54-85

1. Is the Veda the Source of the Knowledge of Brahman ? . 54

2. Preparatory Means to a Knowledge of Brahman . . 60
' 3. Sacrifice . . . . . . .61

-4. Asceticism (tapas) . . . , . .65

5. Other Preliminary Conditions . . . .70

6. The Standpoint of Ignorance, of Knowledge, and of

superior Knowledge in relation to Brahman . . 74

II. THE SEARCH FOR BRAHMAN ..... 85-99

7* 1. The Atman (Brahman) as the Unity . . .85

2. Bahlki's Attempts at Explanation . . . .87

3. S'akalya's Attempts at Explanation . . . .88

4. Six inadequate Definitions . . . . .89

5. Definitions of the Atman Vais'vunara . . .90

6. Nurada's gradual Instruction . . . . .92

7. Three dift'erentAAtmans . . . . .94

8. Five different Atmans . . . . .97

III. SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF BRAHMAN . . 99-125

1. Introduction and Classification . . . .99

2. Brahman as Prtina and Viiyu . . . .101

3. Other Symbols of Brahman . . . . .111

4. Attempts to interpret the symbolical Representations of

Brahman . . . . . . .117

5. Interpretations of and Substitutes for Ritual Practices . 119

IV. THE ESSENTIAL BRAHMAN ..... 126-157

1. Introduction . . . . . . .126

2. Brahman as Being and not-Being, Reality and not-Reality . 1/28

3. Brahman as Consciousness, Thought (cit) . . .132

4. Brahman as Bliss (dnanda) ..... 140

5. Negative Character and Unknowableness of the essential

Brahman ....... 146

V. BRAHMAN AND THE UNIVERSE .... 157-179

1. Sole Reality of Brahman ..... 157

2. Brahman as the cosmical Principle .... 159

3. Brahman as the psychical Principle . . . .166

4. Brahman as a Personal God (fovani) . . . .172

THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

A. INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY
OF THE UPANISHADS

I. THE PLACE OF THE UPANISHADS IN
THE LITEEATUEE OF THE VEDA

1. The Veda and its Divisions

IT will be remembered that our earlier investigations led
to a classification of Vedic literature into four principal
parts, which correspond to the four priestly offices at the
Soma sacrifice ; these are the Rig, Ya.jur, Sama, and
Atharvaveda, each of which comprises a Samhita, a Brah-
mana, and a Sutra. The Brahmana (in the wider sense of
the term) is then further divided by the exponents of the
Vedanta into three orders, which as regards their contents
are for the most part closely connected with and overlap
one another, viz. — Vidhi, Arthavada, and Vedanta or
Upanishad. The following scheme may be helpful in
retaining in the memory this primary classification of
the Veda : —

I. Rigveda. ^ A Samhita. , Tr. .

TT a A I a. Vidhi.

m YTur^k * Brilhmana- <>• Arthavida.

iv! Atharvavecla. J G Sfltra' [

2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

A further preliminary remark is that each of the
above twelve parts of the Veda has been preserved as a
rule not separately, but in several often numerous forms,
inasmuch as each Veda was taught in different S'dkhds
(literally, "branches" of the tree of the Veda), i.e. Vcdic
schools, which in their treatment of the common subject-
matter varied so considerably from one another that,
in course of time, distinct works were produced, the
contents of which nevertheless remained practically
the same. In particular, each of the three ancient
Vedas (in the case of the fourth the relations are
usually different) comprises not one Brahmana, but
several ; and similarly there exist for each Veda not
one but several Upanishads. On this subject more will
be found below.

2. Brdhmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad
The link between the Upanishad and the Brahmana
with its very different spirit is as a rule^ not direct,
but established ordinarily by means of an Aranyaka or
" forest-book," to the close of which the Upanishad is
attached, or in which it is included. The name is given
either because (as Oldenberg supposes, Prol, p. 291), on
account of its mysterious character it should be imparted
to the student not in the village (grdme), but outside
of it (aranye, in the jungle) (cp. the narrative, Brih.
3. 2. 13, and the names raliasyam, upanishad), or
because from the very beginning it was "a Brahmana
appointed for the vow of the anchorite." The contents
of the Aranyakas perhaps favour rather the latter con
ception, so far as they consist mainly of all kinds of
explanations of the ritual and allegorical speculations
therein. This is only what might be expected in the life

1 Aranyaka-vrata-rApam brdhtnanam, Sayana ; see Aufrecht, Einl. zum Ait.
7?r., p. iii., and cp. fteuraen, Upan., p. 7.

BRAHMAN A ARANYAKA UPANISHAD 3

of the forest as a substitute for the actual sacrificial
observances, which for the most part were no longer
practicable ; and they form a natural transition to the
speculations of the Upanishads, altogether emancipated
as these are from the limitations of a formal cult. The
connecting-link is never wanting where the written
tradition of a Sakha has been handed down unbroken
(as is not the case with the Kdthaka, S'vetds'vatara,
Maitrdyaniya), for both the Aitareyins and KausMtaTdns
of the Eigveda and the Taittiriyakas and Vdjasaneyins
of the Yajurveda possess together with the Samhita their
Brahmana with Aranyaka and Upanishad. Even then,
if in the schools of the Samaveda the name Aranyaka is
not employed, yet there also the introductions to the
Upanishads l bear throughout the character of Aranyakas.
This succession of ritual allegorical and philosophical
texts, which is really the same in all the Sakhas, may
be due partly to the order of thought adopted for the pur
poses of instruction, in which the Samhita would naturally
be followed immediately by the Brahmana (so far as this
was generally taught, cp. Oldenberg, Pro/., p. 291); the
deep mysterious meaning of the ceremonies would then
be unfolded in the Aranyaka ; and finally the exposition
of the Upanishads would close the period of Vedic in
struction. As early, therefore, as S'vet. 6. 22 and Mund.
3. 2. 6, and thenceforward, the Upanishads bore the
name Veddnta (i.e. "end of the Veda"). On the other
hand it is not to be denied that the order of the texts
within the canon of each Sakha corresponds generally
to their historical development, and that the position of
the several parts affords an indication of their earlier or
later date. If, however, these two factors that determined
the arrangement, namely, the tendency to a systematic
classification of the material for instruction and the

1 Chandogya Upan. 1-2, Upanishadbrah. 1-3.

4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

preservation of the order of chronological development,
do actually for the most part coincide in their result, this
is very simply explained on the supposition that in the
course of time the general interest was transferred from
the ritualistic method of treatment to the allegorical,
and from that again to the philosophical. Moreover, the
separation of the material is by no means strictly carried
out, but in all three classes, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and
Upanishads, there are found occasionally digressions of
a ritual as well as allegorical or philosophical nature.
Especially noteworthy, however, and demanding explana
tion is the circumstance that, apart from this occasional
overlapping of the subject-matter, the broad distinctions
between Brahmana Aranyaka and Upanishad are by
no means always correctly observed; e.g., among the
Aitareyins the matter of the Brahmana extends into the
Aranyaka, while with the Taittiriyakas the close of the
Brahmana and the beginning of the Aranyaka agree
throughout, and the dividing line is entirely arbitrary.
This state of things is to be explained probably only on
the supposition that the entire teaching material of each
S'akha formed originally a consecutive whole, and that
this whole was first in the later times distinguished into
Brahmana Aranyaka and Upanishad, on a principle which
did not depend upon the character of the subject-matter
alone, but which, though in general correspondence with
it, was in fact imposed from without. Such a principle we
seem to be able to recognise in the later order of the four
As'rarnas, by virtue of which it became the duty of every
Indian Brahman first as brahmac'dmn to spend a portion
of his life with a Brahman teacher, then as grihastha to
rear a family and to carry out the obligatory sacrifices,
in order thereafter as vdnaprastha to withdraw into the
solitude of the forest, and to devote himself to self-
discipline and meditation, until finally in extreme old age.

UPANISHADS OF THE THREE OLDER VEDAS 5

purified from all attachment to earth, homeless and with
out possessions, free from all obligations, he wandered about
as sannydsin (bhikshu, parivrdjaka), awaiting only his
spirit's release into the supreme spirit. In the instruction
communicated to him the brahmac'drin was put in posses
sion of a rule of conduct for his entire future life. From
the Brahmana he learnt how, as grihastha, he would have
to carry out the ritual of sacrifice with the aid of the
officiating priests ; the Aranyaka, as indeed is implied
in the name, belonged to the period of life as vdnaprastha,
during which for the most part meditation took the place
of the sacrificial acts ; and finally the Upanishad taught
theoretically that aloofness from the world which the sann
ydsin was bound to realise in practice. Therefore it is
said of him, that he should " live without the (liturgical)
precepts of the Veda," but yet " recite the Aranyaka and
the Upanishad of all the Vedas."1 And as ordinarily
Aranyaka and Upanishad were blended together, so
until quite late times, as we shall see, no strict line of
demarcation was drawn in most instances between
vdnaprastha and sannydsin.

3. TJie Upanisliads of the three older Vedas

As the Brahmanas formed the ritual text-books of the
Vedic S'akhas, so the Upanisliads attached to them were
originally nothing more that the text-books of dogma, a
fact which accounts especially for the identity in them all
of the fundamental thought, which is developed at greater or
less length and with the utmost variety. The earliest rise
of the S'akhas or Vedic schools, on which this community
of the ritual, and with it the philosophical tradition de
pends, is to be sought in a time in which the contents of the
Sariihita were already substantially fixed, and were trans
mitted from teacher to pupil to be committed to memory.2

1 Aruneya-Up. 2. 2 Cp. Chand. 6. 7. 2.

6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

On the other hand the necessary ritual allegorical
and dogmatic explanations were communicated to the
pupils extempore, and from these subsequently the
oldest Indian prose took its rise. The result was that
the common material of instruction, which in its essential
features was already determined, received very various
modifications, corresponding to the idiosyncrasy of the
teacher, not only in regard to execution and mystical
interpretation of the particular ceremonies, but also be
cause one laid greater stress on the liturgical, another on
the dogmatic teaching. Hence it is that the Upanishads
of the individual schools differ so greatly in length.
In the course of centuries the originally extempore
instruction crystallised into fixed texts in prose, which
were committed to memory verbatim by the pupil,
while at the same time the divergences between the
individual schools became wider. It is therefore quite
credible that Indian writers should have been able to
enumerate a considerable number of SYikhfis, in which
each Veda was studied. But it is equally intelligible that
of these many S'akhas the majority disappeared in the
struggle for existence, and that for each Veda only a few
prominent S'akhas with the Upanishads belonging to them
have been preserved. We^nrust limit ourselves here for
general guidance to a mere enumeration of the eleven extant
Upanishads of the three older Vedas, with the remark,
however, that in the case of several of these it is doubtful
whether they are correctly attributed to the S'akha
concerned. A further discussion of this point will be
found in the Introductions prefixed to my translations of
the sixty Upanishads.

UPANIHHAD.

I. Rigveda.

Aitareya Upanishad. Aitareyins.

Kaushitaki Upanishad. Kaushitakins.

UPANISHADS OF THE ATHARVAVEDA 7

II. Samaveda.

Chandogya Upanishad. Tandins.

^KenaT(TaIavakara) Upanishad. Jaiminiyas (Talavakaras).
III. Yajurveda— (a) Black.

Taittiriya Upanishad. ) „, . . A ,

Mahanarayana Upanishad. J
Kathaka Upanishad. Kathas.

S'vetas'vatara Upanishad. (wanting.)

Maitrayaniya Upanishad Maitrayaniyas.

(6) White.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. )
Is'aUpanishad. J Vajasaneyms.

4. The Upanishads of the Atharvaveda

The case is entirely different with the numerous Upa
nishads which have found admission into the Atharva
veda. It is true that several of them trace back their
doctrine to S'aunaka or Pippalada, or even (as the
Brahma-Up.) to both together ; and according to the
tradition communicated by Narayana and Colebrooke,
not only single treatises, but complete series of Upani
shads were attributed to the S'aunakiyas or Pippaladis.
But the contradictions of these accounts, as well as the
circumstance that the most diverse Upanishads refer their
doctrine to the alleged founders of the Atharvaveda
S'akhas, S'aunaka and Pippalada, suggest the conjecture
that we should see in this little more than an arbitrary
attachment to well-known names of antiquity ; just as
other Atharva-Upanishads trace back their doctrine to
Yajnavalkhya, to Angiras or Atharvan, or even to Brahma
Rudra and Prajapati. Moreover the names of the
Atharva-Upanishads (apart from a few doubtful excep
tions, as MdnddJcya, Jdbdla, Paihgala, Shavank) are no
longer, as is the case with the Upanishads of the three
older Vedas, formed on the model of the names of
the S'akhas, but are derived partly from the contents
and partly from any accidental circumstance. This
proves that in the Atharva-Upanishads we must not

8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

expect to find the dogmatic text-books of definite Vedic
schools.

Many indications (of which more will be said hereafter)
point to the fact that the leading Ideas of the Upanishads,
the doctrine, namely, of the sole reality of the Atman, of
its evolution as the universe, its identity with the soul,
and so forth, although they may have originated from
Brahmans such as Yajnavalkhya, yet in the earliest times
met with acceptance rather in Kshatriya circles1 than
among Brahmans, engrossed as the latter were in the
ritual. It was only later on that they were adopted
by the Brahmans, and interwoven with the ritual on the
lines of allegorical interpretation.

Under these circumstances it is very probable that the
atman doctrine, after it had been taken in hand by the
S'akhas of the three older Vedas, was further prosecuted
outside of these schools, and that consequently in course
of time works were published, and have been partially at
least preserved, which occupy a position as compared
with the Upanishads of the Rig Sama and Yajurvedas
precisely similar to that of the Samhita of the Athar-
vaveda to their Samhitas. And as at an earlier date
hymns of various kinds found admittance into this
Samhita, which were partly of too late composition
for the older Samhitas, and partly were despised by
them ; so now again it was the Atharvaveda which opened
its arms to the late born or rejected children of the spirit
of atman research. The consequence of this generosity
was that in course of time everything which appeared in
the shape of an Upanishad, that is a mystical text,

1 As an illustration of the different relation of Brahmans and Kslmtriyas
to the novel doctrine of the Atman, Brill. 3-4 may be referred to, where
Yajnavalkhya, as exponent of this new doctrine, is met with jealousy and
doubt on the side of the Brahmans, but by the king Janaka with enthusi
astic assent. To this question we return later (infra, p. 17 ff.).

UPANISHADS OF THE ATHARVAVEDA 9

whether it were the expression merely of the religious
philosophical consciousness of a limited circle or even an
individual thinker, was credited to the Atharvaveda, or by
later collectors was included in it without further hesita
tion. The regularity with which a given text reappears
in the different collections forms, as far as we can see, the
sole mark of its canonicity (if we may use the word in
such a connection). Guided by this principle we have
gathered together in our translation of the " Sixty Upani-
shads " all those texts which seem to have met with
general recognition. Eeferring then for further details
to the Introduction there to the Atharva-Upanishads, we
propose here, for the sake of a general survey, merely to
enumerate the more important of these works according
to the fivefold classification which we have made of
them.1

I. PURE VEDANTA UPANISHADS. — These remain essenti
ally faithful to the old Vedanta doctrine, without laying
more definite stress than is already the case in the older
Upanishads on its development into the Yoga, Sannyasa,
and Vaishnavite or S'aivite symbolism :—

Mundaka, Pras'na, Mdndukya (with the Karika) ;
Garbha, Prdndgnihotra, Pinda;
Atma, Sarvopanishatsdra, Gdruda.

II. YOGA UPANISHADS. — These from the standpoint of
the Vedanta treat predominantly and exclusively of the
apprehension of the Atman through the Yoga by means
of the morse of the syllable Om :—

Bralimavidyd, Kshurikd, C'ulikd;

Nddabindu, Bralimabindu, Amritabindu.Dliydna-

bindu, Tejobindu ;

s'ikhd, Yogatattva, Hariisa.

III. SANNYASA UPANISHADS. — As a rule these are
equally one-sided, and enjoin and describe the life

1 Following, in reality, Weber's example.

io THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

of the Sannyasin as the practical issue of Upanishad
teaching :—

Brahma, Sannydsa, Aruneya, Kanthas'ruti ;

Paramahamsa, Jdbdla, As'rama.

IV. S'IVA UPANISHADS. — These interpret the popularly
worshipped S'iva (Is'ana, Mahes'vara, Mahadeva, etc.) as a
personification of the Atmari : —

Atharvasiras, Atharvas'ikhd, Nilarudra;
Kdldgnirudra, Kaivalya.

V. VISHNU UPANISHADS. - - These explain Vishnu
(Narayana, Nrisirhha, etc.) similarly in the sense of the
Upanishad teaching, and regard his various avataras as
impersonations of the Atman : —

Mahd, Ndrdyana, Atmabodha;
Nrisimhapiirvatdpaniya, Nrisimhottaratdpantya ;
Rdmaptirvatdpaniya, Rdmottaratdpaniya.

5. On the Meaning of the Word Upanishad

According to S'ankara, the Upanishads were so named
because they "destroy" inborn ignorance,1 or because
they "conduct" to Brahman.2 Apart from these inter
pretations, justifiable neither on grounds of philology nor
of fact, the word Upanishad is usually explained by
Indian writers by rahasyam (i.e. " secret," Anquetil's
secretum tecjendum). Thus it is said, for example, in
Nrisiihh. 8 four times in succession iti rahasyam, instead
of the earlier usual form iti Upanishad (as is found e.g. at
the close of Taitt. 2 and 3, Mahanar. 62. 63. 64). In older
passages also, where mention is made of Upanishad texts,
such expressions are used as guhyd' ddes'dh? paramam
guli yam* vedaguhya-upanishatsu gildh am? guliyatamam*

1 S'ankara on Brih. p. 2. 4, Kuth. p. 73. 11.

2 Id. on Taitt. p. 9. 5, Mum), p. 2G1. 10.

3 Chfuid. 3. o. 2. 4 Kuth. 3. 17, S'vet. 6. 22.
5 S'vet. 5. G. 6 Maitr. G. 29.

MEANING OF THE WORD UPANISHAD n

The attempt to maintain secrecy with regard to
abstruse and therefore easily misunderstood doctrines has
numerous analogies even in the West. To the question
why He speaks to them in parables Jesus answers, on
SeSorai yvwvai ra /jLvarrfpia TT}? /3ao-tXe/a? r&v ovpai'&v,
Se ov SeSorai.1 Pythagoras requires of his pupils
(ricoTrr), mystical silence. A saying is preserved of

Heracleitus, ra r^ yvwa-ea)*: {3d6ij Kpvrrreiv amari'T) ajaO^.

Plato finds fault with the art of writing on the ground
that it OVK erriararai \eyeiv o£? Set 76 real /j,ij.2 And
Schopenhauer demands of his readers as a preliminary
condition that they should have grappled with the diffi
culties of Kant.

The same feeling inspires the warning repeated
again and again in the Upanishads, not to impart a
certain doctrine to unworthy students.

. Ait. Ar. 3. 2. 6. 9 : — " These combinations of letters
(according to their secret meaning, their upanishad) the
teacher shall not impart to anyone who is not his
immediate pupil (antevdsin), who has not already lived
for a year in his house, who does not himself intend to be
a teacher."

Chand. 3. 11. 5: — " Therefore only to his eldest son
shall the father as Brahman communicate it (this
doctrine), but to no one else, whoever he may be."

Brih. 6. 3. 12:— "This (the mixed drink, mantha,
and its ritual) shall be communicated to no one, except
the son or the pupil."

S'vet. 6. 22 : — " Give it (this supreme secret) to none
who is not tranquil, who is not a son or at least a
pupil."

Mund. 3. 2. 11 : — " None may read this who has not
observed his vow."

Maitr. 6. 29 : — " This most mysterious secret shall be

13. 11. 2 Phaedr. 275, E.

12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

imparted to none who is not a son or a pupil, and who
has not yet attained tranquillity."

Nrisiihh. 1. 3 : — " But if a woman or a S'udra learns
the Savitri formula, the Lakshmi formula, the Pranava,
one and all go downwards after death. Therefore let
these never be communicated to such ! If anyone
communicates these to them, they and the teacher alike
go downwards after death."

Ramap. 84 : — " Give it not (the diagram) to common
men."

The same explanation is to be given of the striking
feature, which is constantly recurring in the Upanishads,
that a teacher refuses to impart any instruction to
a pupil who approaches him, until by persistence
in his endeavour he has proved his worthiness to
receive the instruction. The best known instance of
this kind is Naciketas in the Kfithaka Upanishad, to
whom the god of death vouchsafes the desired instruction
on the nature of the soul and its fate only after the young
man has steadily rejected all attempts to divert him from
his wish.1 Indra deals in a similar way with Pratardana,2
Raikva with Janas'ruti,3 Satyakama with Upakosala,4
Pravahana with Aruni,5 Prajapati with Indra and
Vairoc'aua,6 Yfijnavalkya with Janaka,7 S'akayanya with
Brihadratha.8

From all this it follows that the universal tendency
of antiquity, and of the circle which produced the
Upanishads, was in the direction of keeping their
contents secret from unfit persons, and that the Indian
writers were practically justified in explaining the term
upanishad by rahasyam, " secret." Less easy is it at
first sight to understand how the word upanishad has

1 Kath. 1. 20 f. 2 Kaush. 3. 1. 3 Chand. 4. 2.

4 Chand. 4. 10. 2. 8 Chand. 5. 3. 7, Brih. 6. 2. 6.

c Cband. 8. 8. 4. 7 Brih. 4. 3. 1 f. 8 Maitr. 1. 2.

MEANING OF THE WORD UPANISHAD 13

come to signify " secret meaning, secret instruction, a
secret." For upanishad, derived as a substantive from
the root sad, to sit, can only denote a "sitting"; and as
the preposition upa (near by) indicates, in contrast to
parishad, samsad (assembly), a " confidential secret
sitting," we must assume, even if actual proof is
wanting, that this name for " secret-sitting" was used also
in course of time to denote the purpose of this sitting,
i.e. "secret instruction." Just as the German "college"
has been transferred from the idea of " convention " to
that of the subject-matter of instruction ; so that in such
an expression as "to read, to hear, etc. a lecture" the
original meaning of college (from colligere, to collect) is
altogether forgotten, as in the case of the Upanishads the
original conception of " sitting." Similar instances are
quite common, as for example the faa-wal a/cpodo-eis of
Aristotle or the Siarpipai of Epictetus no longer signify
lectures, conversations, but definite written compositions.
Another explanation of the word upanishad has been
recently put forward by Oldenberg, according to which
upanishad, precisely as updsand, would have originally
meant " adoration," i.e. reverential meditation on the
Brahman or Atman.1 The suggestion deserves attention,
but is open to the following objections, (l) The words
upa + as, "to sit before someone or something (in adora
tion)," and upa -{-sad (upa + ni + sad does not occur in
the Upanishads), " to seat oneself before someone (for the
purpose of instruction)," are, according to prevailing usage,
to be carefully distinguished from one another. Even if
in the older texts the linguistic usage was not yet
rigorously fixed, yet in the Upanishads (as a glance at
Jacob's concordance proves), upa + as is always "to
worship," never "to approach for instruction," and upa +
sad always " to approach for instruction," never " to

1 Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellschaft, Bd. 50 (1896), p. 457 f.

i4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

worship " ; and the reason for forming the substantive
upanishad not from upa + sad, but from the rarer upa +
ni + sad, was perhaps merely that the substantive upasad
had been already adopted as the name of a well-known
ceremony preliminary to the Soma sacrifice. (2) Even if
mention is frequently made of worship of Brahman or the
atmau, especially under a definite symbol (as manas,
prdna, etc.), yet, strictly speaking, the atman is not like
the gods an object of worship, but an object of knowledge.
Kcna 1. 4 f., — "that shouldest thou know as Brahman,
not that which is there worshipped " (na idam yad idam
updsate); Chanel. 8. 7. 1, — " the self (atman) . . .that
ought man to search after, that endeavour to know " ;
Brill. 2. 4. 5, — " the self, in truth, should be seen, heard,
understood, and reflected upon, 0 Maitreyi," etc. The
two passages of the Upanishads also, which Oldenberg
cites in proof of worship offered to Brahman, tell in
reality in the opposite direction. In Brih. 2. 1, Gargya
declares his worship of this or that as Brahman, until
finally the king breaks off the inquiry with the words,
"with all that it is not yet known" (na etdvatd viditam
bhavati). Then he imparts the teaching concerning the
deep sleeper, and closes with the words, "his upanishad"
(secret name, not worship) " is ' the reality of realities,' " i.e.
the essence which is implied in all empirical existence.
And if in Brih. 1. 4 the proposition is laid down that
not the gods but the atman alone should be worshipped,
by this is to be understood merely a polemic against the
worship of the gods, not a demand to "worship" the
atman as though it were only a god. This word is
applicable, therefore, solely to the gods, and is used of the
atman only by zeugma,1 and the proof of this is found

1 If this is disputed, then, to be consistent, from passages like Brih. 2. 4.

5, " the atman in truth should be seen and heard," etc., the conclusion must

be drawn that the utman is visible and audible.

MEANING OF THE WORD UPANISHAD 15

in what follows when it is said, — " He who worships
another deity, and says ' He is one, and I am an
other/ that man is not wise." 1 Without, however, such
a conception of the atman as "He is one, and I am
another," which is here interdicted, worship is altogether
inconceivable, but not perhaps knowledge by immediate
intuition (anubhava). (3) An attempt to apply the hypo
thesis under consideration throughout to the existing facts
would demonstrate its impossibility. Thus in Taitt. 1. 3
the secret meaning (upanishad) of the combination of
letters (samhitd) is explained, and this being concluded
various rewards are held out in prospect to him " who
knows these great combinations as thus expounded "
(ya evam etd mahdsamhitd vydkhydtd veda). Here
merely a knowledge of the combination of the letters is
required ; there is no mention of any worship in the entire
paragraph. Or if we take the certainly ancient passage
Kaush. 2. 1-2, where it is said of the beggar, who knows
himself as the Self of all beings, — tasya upanishad ' na
ydc'ed' iti, "his secret sign is not to beg"; it would be
very difficult to say what suggestion of " worship " is
found in phrases like these.

If the passages collected in my index to the
Upanishads under the word Upanishad are examined, it
will be at once evident that, taken together, they
involve the meaning, " secret sign, secret name, secret
import, secret word, secret formula, secret instruction,"
and that therefore to all the meanings the note of secrecy
is attached. Hence we may conclude that the explana
tion offered by the Indians of the word upanishad
as raliasyam, "secret," is correct,

1 Brih. 1. 4. 10.

1 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

II. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE
UPANISHADS

1. The earliest Origin of the Upanishads

The word Upanishad occurs with three distinct
meanings as —

(1) Secret word.

(2) Secret text.

(3) Secret import.

( 1 ) Certain mysterious words, expressions, and formulas,
which are only intelligible to the initiated, are described
as UpanisJiad. These contain either a secret rule for
action and behaviour, as the na ydc'et of Kaush. 2. 1,2,
quoted above, or secret information on the nature of
Brahman. When, then, the latter is described as satyasya
satyam1, or tad-vanam2 (the final goal of aspiration), there
is added, " thou hast been taught the Upanishad." Of a
similar nature are secret words like tajjaldn? " in him
(all beings) are born, perish, and breathe," or neti neti.4
And when the worship of Brahman under such formulas
is enjoined, it is not implied that upanishad signifies
" worship," but only, as already pointed out, that medita
tion on Brahman under these mysterious terms must take
the place of the worship of the gods.

(2) The extant texts themselves, as well as the older
texts underlying them, are called Upanishads. Accord
ingly in the Taittiriyaka school especially a section often
ends with the words, — iti upanishad.

(3) Very frequently it is not a word or a text, but the
secret allegorical meaning of some ritual conception or
practice, which is described as upanixhad-, e.g. in Chand. 1.
1. 10, — "for that which is executed with knowledge,

* Brih. 2. 1. 20, 2. 3. G. 2 Ki>na 31 (4. G).

8 Chand. 3. 14. 1. 4 Brih. 2. 3. G, and often.

EARLIEST ORIGIN OF THE UPANISHADS 17

with faith, with the upanishad (knowledge of the secret
meaning of Udgitha as Om), that is more effective."

The question suggests itself, which of these three
significations is the original. We might decide for the
third, and suppose that an allegorical interpretation was
assigned to the ritual, and the Upanishad doctrine
developed thence. This, however, apparently was not
the case, and there is much to be said for the view that, as
already observed above, the conceptions of the Upanishads,
though they may have originated with the Brahmans, were
fostered primarily among the Kshatriyas and not within
Brahman circles, engrossed as these were with the ritual.

The Upanishads have come down to us, like the rest
of the texts of the three older Vedas, through the Brah
mans. All the more striking is it, therefore, that the
texts themselves frequently trace back some of their most
important doctrines to kings, i.e. Kshatriyas. Thus, in
the narrative of Chand. ^5. 11-24, five learned Brahmans
request from Uddalaka Aruni instruction concerning the
Atman Vais'vanara. Uddalaka distrusts his ability to
explain everything to them, and all the six therefore
betake themselves to the king As'vapati Kaikeya, and
receive from him the true instruction, the defectiveness
of their own knowledge having first been made clear.
In Brih. 2. 1 (and the parallel passage, Kaush. 4), the
far-famed Vedic scholar Gargya Balaki volunteers to
expound the Brahman to King Ajatas'atru of Kasl, and
propounds accordingly twelve (in Kaush. 16) erroneous
explanations; whereupon to him, the Brahman, the king
exhibits the Brahman as the atman under the figure of
a deep sleeper, prefacing his exposition with the remark,
" that is a reversal of the rule, for a Brahman to betake
himself as a pupil to a Kshatriya in order to have the
Brahman expounded to him ; now I proceed to instruct
you." In this narrative, preserved by two different Vedic

1 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

schools, it is expressly declared that the knowledge of
the Brahman as atman, the central doctrine of the entire
Vedanta, is possessed by the king ; but, on the contrary,
is not possessed by the Brahman "famed as a Vedic
scholar." l In Chand. 1. 8-9, two Brahmans are instructed
by the king Pravahana Jaivali concerning the dkds'a as
the ultimate substratum of all things, of which they are
ignorant. And although it is said in Chand. 1. 9. 3
that this instruction had been previously imparted by
Atidhanvan to Udaras'andilya, yet the names allow of
the conjecture that in this case also a Brahman received
instruction from a Kshatriya. Similarly Chand. 7 contains
the teaching given by Sanatkumara, the god of war, to
the Brahman Narada. Here the former pronounces in
adequate the comprehensive Vedic learning of the Brah
man with the words : " all that you have studied is
merely name."2 Finally the leading text of the doctrine
of the soul's transmigration, which is extant in three
different recensions,3 is propounded in the form of an
instruction given to Aruni by the king Pravahana Jaivali.4
The king here says to the Brahman : — " Because, as you
have told me, 0 Gautama, this doctrine has never up to
the present time been in circulation among Brahmans,
therefore in all the worlds the government has remained
in the hands of the warrior caste."1

When we consider that the passages quoted discuss
such subjects as the knowledge of Brahman as atman,6 the
knowledge of this atman as the all-quickener,7 and the

i Kaush., l.c. » Chand. 7. 1.3.

3 Chand. 5. 3-10, Brih. 5. 2, and with considerable variations Kaush. 1.

4 In Kaush., I.e., by C'itra Gangyfiyana.

'Chand. 5. 3. 7 ; in Brih. 6. 2. 8 the words are:— "As surely as I wish
that you, like your ancestors, may remain well -disposed to us, so surely up
to the present day this knowledge has never been in the possession of a
Brahman."

• Brih. 2. 1, Kaush. 4. T Chand. 5. 11 f.

EARLIEST ORIGIN OF THE UPANISHADS 19

fate of the soul after death,1 that is, precisely the most
important points of Upanishad teaching ; that not only
is the king represented in them as endowed with wisdom,
but is expressly contrasted with the Brahman who is
ignorant or deluded ; and that these narratives are
preserved to us by the Vedic Sakhas, and therefore by
the Brahmans themselves ; we are forced to conclude, if not
with absolute certainty, yet with a very high degree of
probability, that as a matter of fact the doctrine of the
atman, standing as it did in such sharp contrast to all the
principles of the Vedic ritual, though the original concep
tion may have been due to Brahmans, was taken up and
cultivated primarily not in Brahman but in Kshatriya
circles, and was first adopted by the former in later times.
The fact, moreover, which is especially prominent in the
last quoted passages, that the Brahmans during a long
period had not attained to the possession of this knowledge,
for which they nevertheless display great eagerness, is
most simply explained on the supposition that this teach
ing with regard to the atman was studiously withheld
from them ; that it was transmitted in a narrow circle
among the Kshatriyas to the exclusion of the Brahmans ;
that, in a word, it was upanishad. The allegorical method
of interpreting the ritual in the light of the atman
doctrine, though it may have been already practised
among the Kshatriya circles, was probably undertaken on
a larger scale after the adoption of the new doctrine by
the Brahmans. It would follow that the third of the
above-mentioned meanings of the word upanishad as
" secret import " (of some ritual conception) is probably
in the first instance secondary. If we ask further, which
of the two other meanings, (1) secret word, (2) secret text,
is the more primitive, it would seem that a transition
from the second to the first is with difficulty intelligible,

1 Chand. 5. 3 f., Brih. 6. 2.

20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHxVDS

but that the first passes into the second by a natural and
readily comprehended change.

We may therefore assume that the doctrine of the
atman as the first principle of the universe, the gradual
rise of which we have traced through the hymns of
the Rigveda and Atharvaveda, was fostered and pro
gressively developed by the Kshatriyas in opposition to
the principles of the Brahmanical ritual ; whence the new
knowledge was expressed in brief words or formulas, intel
ligible only to the initiated, such as tadvanam, tajjaldn,
satyasya sat yam, samyadvdma, vdmani, bhdmant, etc.
A formula of this kind was then called an upanisliad,
inasmuch as the condition of its communication and ex
planation was the absence of publicity. Such formulas
were naturally accompanied by oral explanations, which
also were kept secret, and from these were gradually
developed the earliest texts that bore the name of
Upanishad. The manner in which the formulas tad
vai tad l or vi-ram 2 are discussed may serve as examples
of such secret words accompanied by secret explanation.3

In these and similar ways the secret doctrines, i.e. the
vidyds, arose, of which mention is so frequently made in
the Upanishads. Their authors or exclusive possessors
were renowned in the land. Pilgrims sought them, pupils
served them for many years,4 and rich gifts were offered to
them 5 in order thereby to gain the communication of the

i Brih. 5.4. » Brih. 5. 12.

8 The explanations given of these secret words are not always in
agreement. The definition of Brahman as pArtiam apravarti is approved in
Chand. 3. 12. 7, but in Brili. 2. 1. 5 (Kaush. 4. 8) is regarded, on the contrary,
as inadmissible. Of still greater interest is the case of the Upanishad Brih.
16. 3, amritam satyena c'hannam, understood by others as anritam satyena
c'hannam ; so also Brih. 5. 5. 1 (anritam ubhayatah satyena parigrihttam), which
again is otherwise explained in Chand. 8. 3. 5. Similarly the saying of the
ancient rishis, pdhktam idam sarvam, is differently construed in Brih. 1. 4. 17
and Taitt. 1. 7.

« Chand. 4. 10. 2, 5 Chand. 4. 2. 1.

EARLIEST ORIGIN OF THE UPANISHADS 21

vidyd. In the case of some of these vidyds the name of
the author is preserved. Several of them, in fact, are
equipped with a formal genealogy, which recounts the
original author and his successors, and usually closes with
the injunction to communicate the doctrine only to a
son or trusted pupil.

A suitable field, however, for the successful development
of these doctrines was first opened up when they passed
from the Kshatriya circles, where they had originally
found a home, by ways that a few illustrations have
already taught us to recognise, into the possession of
the Brahmans, whose system of scholastic traditions was
firmly established. The latter eagerly adopted the atman
doctrine, although it was fundamentally opposed to the
Vedic cult of the gods and the Brahmanical system of
ritual, combined it by the help of allegorical interpreta
tion with the ritualistic tradition, and attached it to the
curriculum of their schools. The Upanishads became the
Vedanta.

Soon also the Brahmans laid claim to the new teaching
as their exclusive privilege. They were able to point to
princes and leaders, as Janaka, Janas'ruti, etc., who were
said to have gone for instruction to Brahmans. Authorities
on the ritual like S'andilya and Yajnavalkhya were trans
formed into originators and upholders of the ideas of
the Upanishads, and the atman doctrine was made to pre
suppose the tradition of the Veda : — " Only he who knows
the Veda comprehends the great omnipresent Atman," as
it is said in a passage of the Brahmanas.1

After the Upanishad ideas had been adopted by the
S'akhas, and had been made a part of their Vedic system of
instruction, they passed through a varied expansion and
development under the hands of the Vedic teachers. To
begin with they were brought into accord with the ritua]

1 Tailt. Br. 3. 12. 9. 7.

22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

tradition by interpreting the latter (in the Ar.anyakas) in
the spirit of the atman doctrine ; and thus the adherents
of the Rigveda brought it into connection with the uJctham
(hymn), those of the Sanaa veda with the sdman, and
those of the Yajurveda with the sacrifice, especially the
horse-sacrifice as being its highest form. The new
doctrine, however, was further developed in a manner
which altogether transcended the traditional cult, with
which, indeed, it often found itself in open contradiction.
In regard to this an active communication and exchange

o o

must have existed between the different schools. Defini
tions which by the one were highly regarded failed to meet
with acceptance in another. Teachers who in the one
S'akha exercised supreme authority are found in an
other in a subordinate position (Arum), or are altogether
unknown (Yajnavalkhya). Texts appear with slight
variations in the different Vedic schools, whether borrowed
directly or going back on either side to a common original.
Other texts are met with side by side in one arid the
same S'akha in numerous recensions, often very similar,
often widely divergent from one another. This rich
mental life, the details of which can scarcely be further
reproduced, may not improbably have lasted for centuries ;
and the fundamental thought of the doctrine of the atman
have attained an ever complete! development by means of
the reflection of individual thinkers in familiar intercourse
before a chosen circle of pupils, and probably also by public
discussions at royal courts. The oldest Upanishads pre
served to us are to be regarded as the final result of this
mental process.

2. The extant Upanishads

Owing to the manner in which the Upanishads have
arisen from the activity of the different Vedic schools and
their intercourse one with another, we are unable to lay

THE EXTANT UPANISHADS 23

down any. precise chronological order of succession among
them. All the principal Upanishads contain earlier and
later elements side by side, and therefore the age of each
separate piece must be determined by itself as far as this
is possible from the degree of development of the thoughts
which find expression in it. Here, where we still treat
of the Upanishads as a whole, we can only attempt a
rough and approximate determination of the period to
which in general an Upanishad belongs.

We distinguish first four successive periods of time, to
which the Upanishads as a whole may be assigned.
I. THE ANCIENT PROSE UPANISHADS.—

Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya.

Taittiriya.

Aitareya.

Kaushitaki.

Kena.

The last-named stands on the border-line.
These are collectively the Vedanta texts of the actually
existing S'akhas, and in their earlier parts are usually
closely interwoven with Brahmanas and Aranyakas, of
which they form the continuation, and whose ritualistic
conceptions are interpreted by them in various allegorical
ways. It is only the later, and as we may suppose younger
texts which emancipate themselves from the ritual. The
language is still almost entirely the ancient prose of
the Brahmanas, somewhat ponderous stilted and awkward,
but not without natural charm. The order adopted above
is in general chronological. The Brihadaranyaka and
Chandogya are not only the richest in contents, but also
the oldest of the extant Upanishads. As compared also
with one another, the Brihaddranyaka, as we shall often
see, shows almost without exception greater originality in
the grouping of the texts. On the other hand the literary
outlook of Chand. 7. 1. 4 (7. 2. 1, 7. 7. 1) is materially

24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

broader than that of Brih. 2. 4. 10 (4. 1. 2, 4. 5. 11).
Taittirtya in its essential part is still later than Chan-
dogya ; cp. Chand. 6. 2 (three elements) and Taitt. 2. 1
(five elements). Aitareya is later than Chdndogya (in
Chand. 6. 3. 1 there are three kinds of organic beings, in
Ait. 3. 3 four), and than Taittirtya (cp. Taitt. 2. 6, "after
that he had created it he entered into it," with the more
elaborate description Ait. 1. 3. 12). KaushUaki,&iinlly,
is later than all those named ; for Kaush. 1 is less
original than Chand. 5. 3 f., Brili. 6. 2, and Kaush. 3 must
be later than Ait. 3. 3, Kaush. 4 than Brih. 2. 1. Kena
stands on the border-line of this period, and by virtue
of its first metrical portion already belongs to the
succeeding epoch.

II. THE METRICAL UPANISHADS. — The transition is
made by Kena 1-13 and the verses Brih. 4. 4, 8-21,
undoubtedly a later addition. There follow

Kathaka

Isi

S'vetas'vatara.

Mundaka.

Mahanarayana.

The last-named makes use of Mundaka, and Mundaka
appears to use Svetds'vatara. Is'd seems on the whole
to be less fully developed than Svetds'vatara, and to be
freer from sectarian bias ; but in numerous instances it is
found to be dependent oil Kdthaka.1 That Svetds'vatara
is later than Kdthaka is not open to doubt; on the
contrary, it is very probable, on the evidence of several
passages,2 that Kdthaka was directly employed in the com
position of Svetds'vatara.

The difference between this period and the preceding
is very great. The connection with the S akhas appears

1 Cp. especially IsTi 8 with Kath. 5. 13.

2 Collected in Deussen, Upan., p. ^89.

THE EXTANT UPANISHADS 25

sometimes doubtful, sometimes artificial, and in any case
is loose. Allegories framed after the mariner of the
Aranyakas are wanting. The thought of the Upanishads
is no longer apprehended as in course of development,
but appears everywhere to have been taken over in its
entirety. Individual verses and characteristic phrases con
stantly recur. The phraseology is already formed. And
the language is almost throughout metrical.
III. THE LATER PROSE UPANISHADS. —
Pras'na.
Maitrayaniya.
Mandukya.

In this third period the composition returns again to
prose, but a prose which is markedly different from the
archaic language of the ancient Upanishads, although it
does also take on, especially in theMaitrdijamija, an archaic
colouring. The style suggests that of the later Sanskrit
prose ; it is complex, involved, and delights in repetitions.
The dependence of the thought on that of the earlier Upani
shads is made manifest by numerous quotations and adap
tations. That Pras'na is later than Mundaka is proved
by the fact that the latter is quoted in Pr. 3. 5 ; it is
older, however, than Maitrayaniya, for it is itself quoted
in Maitr. 6. 5. The position of Mdndakya is difficult to
determine, owing to its brevity ; yet the theory concerning
Om in Hand. 3 seems to be more advanced than that
of Maitr. 6. 4. The greater number of the Upanishads
hitherto mentioned have found admission, sometimes with
very doubtful right, to a place in the three older
Vedas. Only three of them— namely, Mundaka, Pras'na,
and Mandukya— appear to have belonged from the
beginning to the Atharvaveda, the two first-named
certainly as the original legitimate Upanishads of this
fourth Veda. These two are ascribed to S'aunaka and
Pippalada, the founders of the STikhas of the Atharva-

26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

veda. The later collections of Atharva Upanishads
begin as a rule with the Mundaka and Pras'na, and these
two alone can he proved to have been known to and
employed by Badarayana and S'ankara.

IV. THE LATER ATHARVA UPANISHADS. — Later theo
logical treatises retain still the form of Upanishads as a
convenient method of literary composition that carries
with it a degree of sanctity ; while the thought concerns
itself partly with the continuous development of older
themes, or refrains from deviating from the beaten tracks
(Garbha, Prdndgnihotra, Pinda, Atma, Sarvopanishat-
sdra, Gdruda), partly turns its attention to the glorifi
cation of the Yoga (Brahmavidyd, Kshurikd, Cdlikd,
Xddabindu, Brahmabindu, Amritabindu, Dhydnabindu,
Tcjobindu, Yogasikhd, Yogatattva, Hamsa), or of the
Sanuyasa (Brahma, Sannydsa, Aruneya, Kanthas'ruti,
Paramahamsa, Jdbdla, As'rama). The difference between
the two tendencies shows itself also in the fact that
almost without exception the Yoga Upanishads are com
posed in verse, those of the Sannydsa in prose with
occasional verses inserted. A further class of Upanishads
is devoted to the worship of S'iva (Atharvas'iras, Atharva-
s-ikhd, Xilarudra, Kdldgnirudra, Kaivalya), or of
Vishnu (Mahd, Ndrdyana, Atmabodha, Nrisimhatd-
paniya, Rdmatdpantya, and endeavours to interpret
these in the light of the atman doctrine. They are
composed for the most part in prose with an inter
mixture of verse. All of these Upanishads were received
into the Atharvaveda, but met with no recognition from
the leading theologians of the Vedanta.

3. The, Upanishads in Bddardyana and Sankara
The earliest traces of a collection of Upanishads are
found within the books themselves. Thus the mention in
S'vet 5. 6 of "the Upanishads that form the mystical

BADARAYANA AND S'ANKARA 27

portion of the Veda" (veda-guhya-upanishadah), and
also the passage S'vet. 6. 22, "in former times in the
Vedanta was tlie deepest mystery revealed," seem to look
back to the older Upanishads as a self-contained whole
which already claimed a certain antiquity. A similar
inference may be drawn from a thrice recurring verse1
which speaks of ascetics (yatis) who have " grasped the
meaning of the Vedanta doctrine." Still more clearly do
the Upanishads appear as a complete whole when, in
Maitr. 2. 3, the doctrine concerning Brahman is described
as " the doctrine of all the Upanishads " (sarva-upanishad-
vidya). That in so late works as the Sarva-upanishad-sara
or the Muktika Upanishad the Upanishads are assumed
to be a whole is therefore of no further importance.

It was undoubtedly on the foundation of older and
earlier works that Badarayana formally undertook an
epitome of Upanishad doctrine in the Brahmastitras,
the foundation of the later Vedanta. He shows that
Brahman is the first principle of the world, samanvaydt,
"from the agreement" of the Upanishad texts,2 and
proclaims the fundamental proposition " that all the
texts of the Vedanta deserve credence " (sarva-veddnta-
pratyayam}? Which Upanishads, however, were recog
nised by him as canonical cannot be ascertained from
the sutras themselves owing to their brevity, but only
from S'ankara's commentary, and the decision therefore
remains in many instances doubtful, since we do not
know how far S'ankara followed a reliable tradition. Only
in the first adhydya is it possible to determine with
greater certainty the Upanishad texts which Badarayana
had in his mind, where he undertakes to establish the
teaching concerningBrahman in twenty-eight Adhikaranas
(sections) based on as many passages of the Upanishads.

1 Mund. 3. 2. 6, Malumur. 10. 22, Kniv. 3.

2 1. 1. 4. 3 3. 3> L

28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Here, as in his entire work, the number four plays a
decisive part in the arrangement of the material. Of the
twenty-eight fundamental passages, twelve are taken from
the Chandogya, four from the Brihadfiranyaka, four from
the Kathaka, four from the Taittiriya and Kaushitaki
(two from each), and four from the Atharva Upanishads,
namely, three from the Mundaka and one from the Pras'na.
The following scheme1 shows that the order of the
passages, as they are found within each of the Upanishads
which he employs, is strictly observed, while in other
respects the passages appear interwoven in a manner for
which we seem to be able to find a reason here and there
in the close connection of the subject-matter.

(1) 1.

1. 12-19.

Taitt. 2. 5.

(2)

20-21.

Chand.

1.

G. G.

(3)

22.

Chand.

1.

9. 1.

(4)

23.

Chand.

1.

11. 5.

(5)

24-27.

Chand.

3.

13. 7.

(G)

28-31.

Kaush. 3. 2.

(7) 1.

2. 1-8.

Cliand.

3.

14. 1.

(8)

9-10.

Kath. 2. 25.

0)

11-12.

K:\tll. 3. 1.

(10)

13-17.

Chand.

4.

15. 1.

(11)

18-20.

Brih.

3. 7. 3.

(12)

21-23.

Mund. 1. 1. G.

(13)

21-32.

Chand.

5.

11-24.

(14) 1.

3. 1-7.

Mund. 2. 2. 5.

(15)

8-9.

Chand.

*7

23.

(1C)

10-12.

Brill.

3. 8. 8.

(17)

13.

Pras'na, 5. 5.

(18)

14-18.

Chand.

8.

1. 1.

(19)

1 9-2 1 .

Chand.

8.

1 2. 3.

(20)

22-23.

Mund. 2. 2. 10.

(21)

24-25.

Kath. 4. 12.

(22)

39.

Kath. G. 1.

(23)

40.

Chand.

8.

12. 3.

(24)

41.

Chand.

8.

14.

(25)

42-43.

Brih.

4. 3. 7.

(2G) 1.

4. 14-15.

Taitt. 2. G.

(27)

10-18.

Kaush. 4. 19.

(28)

19-22.

Brih.

4. 5. 6.

From Deussen, Systtnn. des Veddnta, p. 130.

BADARlYANA AND S'ANKARA 29

The striking preference for the Chandogya suggests
that an earlier work due to the school of this Upanishad
was already in the hands of Badarayuna, into which he
or one of his predecessors worked sixteen extracts of
importance derived from another Sakha, being guided
further by the principle that the original order of the
extracts should be maintained. Besides the Upanishads
named, Badarayana may with some confidence be shown
to have used the S'vetas'vatara,1 Aitareya,2 and perhaps
Jabala.3 With regard, however, to the formula of impre
cation quoted in Sut. 3. 3. 25, which according to S'ankara
should find a place " at the beginning of an Upanishad
of the Atharvanikas," and which is nowhere known to
exist, I would now suggest (since throughout their works
Badarayana and S'ankara make use only of the Mundaka
and Pras'na from the Atharva Upanishads, consequently
recognise none but these, and since they appear to recog
nise the authority of the Upanishad that follows the
imprecation formula), that the suspected formula may
once have stood at the beginning of one of these two,
perhaps of the Mundaka Upanishad ; somewhat after the
manner in which the S'anti formulas precede the Upani
shads in some manuscripts, and in others are wanting.

To the Brahmasutras of Badarayana is attached the
great commentary of S'ankara (circa 800 A.D.), to whom
are ascribed, besides other works, the commentaries on
the Brihaddranyaka, Clidndogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya,
S'vetas'vatara, Is'd, Kena, Katlia, Pras'na, Mundaka
and Mdndukya, which are edited in the BiU. Ind., vols.
ii., iii., vii., viii. Commentaries therefore of S'ankara
are missing on the KausMtaki, which was first elucidated
by S'ankardnanda (a teacher, according to Hall, Index,
p. 98. 123, of Madhava, who flourished 1350 A.D.),
and on the Maitrdyaniya, which Rdmatirtha expounded.

1 SAt- 1- 4. 8-10. 2 S6tt 3 3> 16_ia 3 SAt

30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

The commentaries, however, on the eleven Upanishads
named are to be attributed in part probably not to
S'ankara himself, but merely to his school, since the
explanations given in the Upanishad commentaries often
fail to agree with those in the commentary on the sutras.
The commentary on the Mdndtikya which is extant
under the name of S'aukara treats this and Gaudapada's
Karika as one, and seems to regard the whole as in no
sense an Upanishad (p. 330 : veddnta-artha-sdra-san-
graha-bhfitam idam prakarana-c'atuslitayam ' om iti
etad aksharam' ityddi drabhyate)\ and with this
would agree the fact that the Mdnddkya is not quoted
either in the Brahmasutras or in S'ankara's commentary
on them, wliile two verses from the Karika of Gaudapada1
are cited by S'ankara2 with the words, atra uktam
veddnta-artha-sampraddyavidbliir dc'dryaih. In his
commentary on the Brahmasutras only the following
fourteen Upanishads can be shown to have been quoted
by S'ankara (the figures attached indicate the number
of quotations), — Chandogya 809, Brihadaranyaka 565,
Taittiriya 142, Munrlaka 129, Kathaka 103, Kaushitaki
88, S'vctas'vatara ^53, Pras'na 38, Aitareya 22, Jabiila 13,
^Mahanarayana 9, Is'a 8, Paingi 6, Kena 5.

Although S'ankara regards the texts of the Vedanta
which he recognises as a uniform and consistent canon of
truth,3 yet he seems still to have had in his hands no

1 3. 15 and 1. 10. 2 P. 375. 3, 433. 1.

3 We may compare his exposition on sutra 3. 3. 1, p. 843: — "How
then can the question arise, whether the doctrines concerning the atman are
different or not different ; for we cannot suppose the aim of the Vedanta is
to teach a plurality of Brahmans, like the existing plurality of phenomena,
since Brahman is one and immutable. So it is not possible that concerning
the immutable Brahman various doctrines should exist ; for to suppose that
the actual fact is one thing, and the knowledge of it another, is necessarily a
mistake. And even supposing that in the different Vedfinta texts various
doctrines were taught concerning the immutable Brahman, only one of these
could be true ; the remainder on the other hand would be false, and the con-

BlDARlYANA AND S'ANKARA 31

collection of Upanishads, since he looks upon the greater
number of them as still forming the concluding chapters
of their respective Brahmanas, to which therefore he is
accustomed to refer at the commencement of the
Upanishad commentary. Thus in the introduction to the
commentary on the Kena1 he quotes its beginning as
"the beginning of the ninth adhyaya ;2 before it works
have been thoroughly discussed ; the acts of adora
tion also of the prana which serves as the foundation
of all works were taught ; and further those also which
relate to the Sam an that forms a branch of the works.
Next followed the consideration of the Gayatra-saman, and
finally the list of teachers. All the above belongs still
to works," etc. On Chdndogya, p. 2 : — " The entire ritual
has been rehearsed, as also the knowledge of Prana- Agni,
etc., as divine." On Taittiriya, p. 2: — "The appointed
works which serve to atone for trangressions that have
been committed, as also the works desirable for those who
covet a definite reward, have been rehearsed in the pre
ceding parts of the book (purvasmin granthe)." On
Brihaddranyaka, p. 4 : " The connection of this (Upani
shad) with the sphere of works is as follows," etc. On
fs'd, p. 1 : — "The mantras is'd vdsyam, etc., do not apply
(as we should expect) to works, but reveal the nature of
the atmari who is independent of works." On Aitareya,
p. 143 : — "The works together with the knowledge rela
tive to the lower Brahman are remitted," etc.

As may be inferred from the comments quoted, all
these Upanishads appear to have been still regarded by
S'ankara as the concluding portions of their respective

sequence would be loss of confidence in the Vedanta. (This, however, in
Sankara's eyes would be an arraycoyi} els TO aSvvarov}. It is therefore
inconceivable that in the individual texts of the Vedanta a difference of
doctrine on the subject of Brahman should find a place."

1 Bill Ind., p. 28.

2 In the recension published by Ortel it belongs to the fourth adhyaya.

32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Br&hmanas. On the other hand a similar connection with
the part of a preceding work is wanting in the case of the
commentaries on Kathaka and S'vetas'vatara. So also
with Mundaka and Pras'na, which are treated by S'ankara
as one. In the introduction to Pras'na, p. 160. 2, he
remarks: — "in order to examine further the subjects
taught in the mantras (of the Mundaka Upanishad, as it
is rightly glossed), this Brahmana (the Pras'na Upanishad)
is undertaken." Since, however, the Mundaka and Pras'na
exhibit no relationship at all, and since they are attached
further to different S akhfis of the Atharvaveda (those of
S'aunaka and Pippalada respectively), this unity under
which S'ankara treats of them is probably to be explained
merely from the fact that as early as his time they were
linked together as the first beginning and foundation of a
collection of Atharva Upanishads. At that time probably
the collection consisted only of these two, for otherwise it
is hardly likely that the others would have been ignored by
S'ankara so completely as was in fact the case. It is true
also that the annotator Anandajndna remarks at the
beginning of S'ankara's commentary on the Mdndukya :
" Beginning with the Brahma Upanishad (he intends
probably the Brahma-vidya Upanishad) and the Garbha
Upanishad, there are extant besides many Upanishads of
the Atharvaveda. Since, however, they are not em
ployed in the S'arirakam (the Brahmasutras of Badarayana),
lie (S'ankara) does not expound them." But the reason
assigned is perhaps not conclusive ; for which Upanishads
are found in the S'arirakam, and which not, could only be
determined by tradition or from S'ankara himself. It
must therefore have been tradition or S'ankara himself
that excluded other Upanishads from the Canon, whether
because they were yet unknown, or because they were not
yet recognised as Upanishads. And thus in fact S'ankara
describes the Mandukya, upon which nevertheless, together

IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS OF UPANISHADS 33

with Gaudapada's Karika, he had himself commented, not
as an Upanishad, but as " a literary composition contain
ing the essence of the Vedanta (veddnta-artha-sdra-
sahgraha-bhtltam prakaranam ).

4. The most important Collections of Upanishads
The further history of the Upanishad tradition is for
a time shrouded in darkness, and only conjecturally are we
able from the existing collections of Upanishads to draw
some conclusions as to their origin. These collections or
lists fall from the outset into two classes, in so far as
they either contain the Upanishads in their entirety, or
limit themselves (at least as far as the original design is
concerned) to the Upanishads of the Atharvaveda. Of
the former class is the Canon of the Muktika and the
Oupnek'hat, of the latter that of Colebrooke and
Narayana.

Since the Upanishads of the three older Vedas con
tinued to live in the tradition of the S akhas, as long as
these survived the secure transmission of the Upanishads
concerned was assured. It was otherwise with the
Atharvaveda, which was not employed at the sacrifice,
and in consequence had no such firmly established
tradition of the schools as the text of the three older
Vedas upon which to rely for its preservation. This is
shown not only by the indifference from which its Samhita
has suffered, but also by the freedom with which it ad
mitted new compositions. The latter would assuredly
have been impossible as long as the tradition was under
the protection of regular Vedic schools, maintaining them
selves from generation to generation according to the
rules of their guild. Hence is to be explained the exten
sive irruption of newly composed Upanishads into the
Atharvaveda. As early as Sankara we find the Mundaka
and Pras'na united together (sup. p. 32), and on these as
3

34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

foundation a collection of Atharva Upanishads appears to
have been gradually built up, which eventually comprised
34 pieces from Mundaka to Nrisirhhatdpantya, and
included also some whose claim to the name of Upani
shads had never been previously recognised; just as in
the judgement of S'ankara the Kfirika of Gaudapada
on the °Mandukya Upanishad, and indeed this treatise
itself (sup. pp. 30, 33), had no claim to the position of an
Upanishad. These 34 primary Upanishads of Colebrooke's
list were later extended to 52 by the addition not only of
a number of recent compositions, but most remarkably
by the side of and among them of seven of the recognised
texts of the older Vedas, viz.— 35-36 KtUhaka, 37 Kena,
39-40 Brihannarayana ( = Taitt. Ar. x.), 44 AnandavalU
( = Taitt. Up. 2), and 45 Bhriguvalll ( = Taitt. Up. 3).
In this manner the collection of 52 Upanishads first made
known by Colcbrooke originated, the strange combination
of which we attempted to explain l on the hypothesis that
at the time and in the region where this collection was
finally put together the three older Vedas were cultivated
only in the Sakhas of the Aitareyins, Tfmdins (to which
the Chandogya Upanishad belongs), and Vajasaneyins.
Accordingly the Upanishads of the remaining Sakhas
(with the exception of the Kaushttaki, S'vetds'vatara, and
Maitrdyanttja, which were perhaps already lost or not
recognised) were inserted in the existing collection of
Atharva Upanishads with a view to their safe pre
servation.2

The collection of Nfirayana is in exact agreement wit
that of Colebrooke, apart from a few variations in the

i Deussen, Upan., p. 537. . .

* An apparently older list has been preserved in the Atharva-paris<ishta
2 13 (Berliner Handschriftcn, 2. 88), which reckons only 28 Atharva Upam-
shada, omitting the texts of the older Vedas, but in other respects, as far
as it goes, agrees with the lists of Colebrooke and Narayana with a single
exception.

COLEBROOKE AND N^RlYANA 35

order of the later treatises. The 52 Upanishads of
Colebrooke are however reduced to 45, seven sectarian
texts^ being then added to form Nos. 46-52, viz.— two
Gopdlatdpaniya, Krishna, Vdsudeva with Goptc'andana,
Svetds'vatara, and two Varadatdpaniya. This inter
relation is to be explained on the theory that the number
52 had already gained a kind of canonical authority
before the desire was felt to insert seven additional texts,
which had now for the first time come into existence or
obtained recognition. The end was attained by uniting
portions that had originally belonged together, and so
reducing the existing 52 numbers to 45^ Thus room
was found for the seven new texts within the number
of the 52, thereby facilitating the recognition of the
complete list as canonical.

The collection of 108 Upanishads, which the Muktika
itself regards as later, appears to belong to an entirely
different region (probably the south of India), and to a
considerably more recent time. This collection includes
all the treatises of Colebrooke (except the Ntlarudra,
Pinda, Mahdndrdyana, As'rama) and of Narayana
(except the Varadatdpaniya), although for the most
part under different names and sometimes expanded
by later additions to thirty or forty times their original
extent. Added to these are the 11 Upanishads of the
three older Vedas complete, with the exception of the
Mahanarayana, and about seventy new texts found
nowhere else. The circumstance that in this collection
the Upanishads of the three older Vedas also find a place,
and that at the very beginning of it, points to a time
and region in which a living and reliable tradition of
the S akhas no longer existed ; of which fact a further
and yet stronger proof is the bold attempt, made with
out a shadow of justification, to assign 10 of these 108
Upanishads to the Eigveda, 19 to the White and 32

3 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

to the Black Yajurveda, 16 to the Samaveda, and
31 to the Atharvaveda, - - a procedure against which
the ancient Vedic schools would have strenuously pro
tested. In other respects this collection is of great
interest for the later history of the Vedanta (perhaps
mainly or exclusively among the Telugu Brahmans), and
deserves closer examination now that it has been made
accessible in the Devanagari edition of 1896. Previously
there had existed only an edition in the Telugu character.
It is worthy of note also that S'ankarananda's readings
often agree with those of the 108 Upanishads against
those of the 52 and of Narayana.

A position apart both from the 52 and the 108
Upanishads is occupied by that collection of 50 Upani
shads which, under the name of Oupnek'hat, which was
translated from the Sanskrit into Persian in the year
1656 at the instance of the Sultan Mohammed Dara
Shakoh, and from the Persian into Latin in 1801-02
by Anquetil Duperron. The Oupnek'hat also, like the
Muktika collection, professes to be a general collection
of Upanishads. It contains under twelve divisions the
Upanishads of the three older Vedas, and with them
twenty-six Atharva Upanishads that are known from
other sources. It further comprises eight treatises peculiar
to itself, five of which have not up to the present time
been proved to exist elsewhere, and of which therefore a
rendering from the Persian-Latin of Anquetil is alone
possible.1 Finally, the Oupnek'hat contains four treatises
from the Vaj. Samh. 16. 31. 32. 34, of which the first is
met with in a shorter form in other collections also as the
Nilanidra Upanishad, while the three last have nowhere
else found admission.2 The reception of these treatises

1 See Deussen, Upan., p. 838 f .

2 These, as belonging to the early history of the Upanishads, I have
translated and discussed mp. I. 1 pp. 156 f., 290 f., 291 f., 3.35.

THE OUPNEK'HAT 37

from the Samhita into the body of the Upanishads, as
though there were clanger of their otherwise falling into
oblivion, makes us infer a comparatively late date for the
Oupnek'hat collection itself, although as early as 1656
the Persian translators made no claim to be the original
compilers, but took the collection over already complete.
They seem, indeed, to have regarded it as originating in a
period long past.1 Owing to the excessive literality with
which Anquetil Duperron rendered these Upanishads word
by word from the Persian into Latin, while preserv
ing the syntax of the former language, — a literality that
stands in striking contrast to the freedom with which
the Persian translators treated the Sanskrit text, — the
Oupnek'hat is a very difficult book to read ; and an insight
as keen as that of Schopenhauer was required in order to
discover within this repellent husk a kernel of invaluable
philosophical significance, and to turn it to account for
his own system.2

An examination of the material placed at our disposal
in the Oupnek'hat was first undertaken by A. Weber,
Ind. Stud., i., ii., ix., on the basis of the Sanskrit text.
Meanwhile the original texts were published in the Biblio-
theca Indica in part with elaborate commentaries, and
again in the Anandas'rama series. Max Muller translated
the twelve oldest Upanishads in Sacred Books of tlie
East, vols. i., xv. The two longest and some of the
shorter treatises have appeared in a literal German
rendering by 0. Bohtlingk. And my own transla
tion of the 60 Upanishads (Leipzig, 1897) contains com
plete texts of this character which, upon the strength of
their regular occurrence in the Indian collections and
lists of the Upanishads, may lay claim to a certain

1 See Deussen, Upan., p. 535.

2 Schopenhauer's judgement on the Oupnek'hat is quoted in Deussen,

Upan.., p. vi.

3 3 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

canonicity. The prefixed Introductions and the Notes
treat exhaustively of the matter and composition of the
several treatises, and there is therefore no necessity to
enter here further into these literary questions.

III. THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION OF THE UPANISHADS
AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

1. The Fundamental Conception of the Upanishads

!A11 the thoughts of the Upanishads move around two
fundamental ideas. These are (l)JJie_Brahnian, and ('2)
the atman. As a rule these terms are employed synonym
ously. Where a difference reveals itself, Brahman appears
as the older and less intelligible expression, atman as the
later and more significant ; Brahman as the unknown that
needs to be explained, atman as the known through which
the other unknown finds its explanation ; Brahman as the
first principle so far as it is comprehended in the universe,
atman so far as it is known in the inner self of man. We
may take as an example the passages from S'atap. Br. 10.
6. 3, Cliand. 3. 14,1 whose sole fundamental thought con
sists in this, that the universe is Brahman (sarvam khalu
id-am brahma), and the Brahman the atman within us
(esha ma dtmd antar liridaye, etc.).2 Another example
is furnished by the story of Gargya (Brih. 2. 1, Kaush. 4),
who endeavours in vain to define the Brahman, until
finally he is referred by the king to the atman for its

1 Translated in I. 1 pp. 264, 336.

2 Bohtlingk maintains * that I had "not known (!) that esha ma' atmA
antar hridaye is everywhere subject." He himself, however, involuntarily
bears testimony to the correctness of my translation, when, immediately after
his rendering in § 3, "this my Self in my innermost heart," in § 4 where
the same phrase recurs he translates precisely as I do, " this is niy Self in
my innermost heart."

* Lerichte dcr Sachs. G. d. W., 1897, p. 84.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION OF UPANISHADS 39

explanation. The difference between Brahman and atman
emerges most clearly where they appear side by side with
one another in brief sayings. The passage Brih. 4. 4. 5
may serve as example : — " truly the Brahman is this
Atman " (sa vd' ayam dtmd brahma).

If for our present purpose we hold fast to this distinc
tion of the Brahman as the cosmical principle of the
universe, the atman as the psychical, the fundamental
thought of the entire Upanishad philosophy may be
expressed by the simple equation : —
Brahman = Atman.

That is to say — the Brahman, the power which presents
itself to us materialised in all existing things, which
creates, sustains, preserves, and receives back into itself
again all worlds, this eternal infinite divine power is
identical with the atman, with that which, after stripping
off everything external, we discover in ourselves as our real
most essential being, our individual self, the soul. This
identity of the Brahman and the atman, of God and the
soul, is the fundamental thought of the entire doctrine of
the Upanishads. It is briefly expressed by the " great
saying " tat tvam asi, " that art thou " (Chanel. 6. 8. 7 f.) ;
and aham brahma asmi, " I am Brahman" (Brih. 1. 4.
10). And in the compound word brahma-dtma-aikyam,
" unity of the Brahman and the atman," is described the
fundamental dogma of the Vedanta system.

If we strip this thought of the various forms, figurative
to the highest degree and not seldom extravagant, under
which it appears in the Vedanta texts, and fix our
attention upon it solely in its philosophical simplicity as
the identity of God and the soul, the Brahman and the
atman, it will be found to possess a significance reaching
far beyond the Upanishads, their time and country ; nay,
we claim for it an inestimable value for the whole race of
mankind. We are unable to look into the future, we do

40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

not know what revelations and discoveries are in store for
the restlessly inquiring human spirit ; but one thing we
may assert with confidence, — whatever new and unwonted
paths the philosophy of the future may strike out, this
principle will remain permanently unshaken, and from it
no deviation can possibly take place. If ever a general
solution is reached of the great riddle, which presents
itself to the philosopher in the nature of things all the
more clearly the further our knowledge extends, the key
can only be found where alone the secret of nature lies
open to us from within, that is to say, in our innermost
self. It was here that for the first time the original
thinkers of the Upanishads, to their immortal honour,
found it when they recognised our atman, our inmost
individual being, as the Brahman, the inmost being of
universal nature and of all her phenomena.

2. The Conception of the Upanishads in its Relation

to Philosophy

The whole of religion and philosophy has its root in
the thought that (to adopt the language of Kant) the
universe is only appearance and not reality (Ding an sick) ;
that is to say, the entire external universe, with its infinite
ramifications in space and time, as also the involved and
intricate sum of our inner perceptions, is all merely the form
under which the essential reality presents itself to a con
sciousness such as ours, but is not the form in which it
may subsist outside of our consciousness and independent
of it ; that, in other words, the sum-total of external and
internal experience always and only tells us how things
are constituted for us, and for our intellectual capacities,
not how they arc in themselves and apart from intelli
gences such as ours.

It is easy to show how this thought, which met with
adequate recognition first in the philosophy of Kant, but

THE UPANISHADS AND PHILOSOPHY 41

which existed in less clearly defined form from the earliest
times, is the basis and tacit presumption, more or less
consciously, of all philosophy, so far at least as this
name is not made to serve as a mere cloak for empirical
sciences. For all philosophy, as contrasted with empirical
science, is not content to learn to know objects in their
circumstances and surroundings, and to investigate their
causal connections ; but it rather seeks beyond all these
to determine their nature, inasmuch as it regards the sum-
total of empirical reality, with all the explanations offered
by the empirical sciences, as something which needs to be
yet further explained ; and this solution is found in the
principle which it sets forth, and from which it seeks to
infer the real nature of things and their relation. This
fact, then, that philosophy has from the earliest times
sought to determine a first principle of the universe, proves
that it started from a more or less clear consciousness that
the entire empirical reality is not the true essence of
things, that, in Kant's words, it is only appearance and
not the thing in itself.

There have been three occasions, as far as we know, on
which philosophy has advanced to a clearer comprehension
of its recurring task, and of the solution demanded : first
in India in the Upanishads, again in Greece in the philo
sophy of Parmenides and Plato, and finally, at a more
recent time, in the philosophy of Kant and Schopen
hauer. In a later work we shall have to show how
Greek philosophy reached its climax in the teaching of
Parmenides and Plato, that this entire universe of change
is, as Parmenides describes it, merely phenomenal, or in
Plato's words a world of shadows; and how both philo
sophers endeavoured through it to grasp the essential
reality, TO 6V, TO 6Wo)<? 6V, that which Plato, in an expression
that recalls the doctrine of the Upanishads no less than
the phraseology of Kant, describes as the avro (dtman)

42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

avro (an sick). We shall then see further how this
same thought, obscured for a time under the influence of
Aristotle and throughout the Middle Ages, was taken up
again in quite a different way, and shone forth more
clearly than ever before in the philosophy founded by
Kant, adopted and perfected by his great successor
Schopenhauer. Here we have to do with the Upanishads,
and the world-wide historical significance of these docu
ments cannot, in our judgement, be more clearly indicated
than by showing how the deep fundamental conception of
Plato and Kant was precisely that which already formed
the basis of Upauishad teaching.

The objects which lie around us on every side in
infinite space, and to which by virtue of our corporeal
nature we ourselves belong, are. according to Kant, not
" things in themselves," but only apparitions. According
to Plato, they are not the true realities, but merely shadows
of them. And according to the doctrine of the Upanishads,
they are not the atman, the real "self" of the things,
but mere mdyd, — that is to say, a sheer deceit, illusion. It
is true that the term may a occurs for the first time in
S'vet. 4. 10 ; and therefore some waiters, whose recognition
of a fact is obscured by the different language in which it
is clothed, have hazarded the assertion that the conception
of mdyd is still unknown to the more ancient Upanishads.
How in the light of this assertion they find it possible to
comprehend these older Upauishads (Brihad. and Chand.)
they themselves perhaps know. The fact is they are
penetrated throughout by the conception which later
was most happily expressed by the word mdyd. In the
very demand which they make that the atman of man,
the atman of the universe, must be sought for,1 it is
implied that this body and this universe which reveal

1 Brih. 2. 4. 5 : dtmd va? are drashtavyah, s'rotavyo, mantavyo, nididhyd-
sitavyo ; Chand. 8. 7. 1: so' nvr-shtavyaJi, sa vijijndsitavyah.

THE UPANISHADS AND PHILOSOPHY 43

themselves to us unsought are not the fitrmin, the self,
the true reality ; arid that we are under a delusion if, like
the demon Viroc'ana,1 we regard them as such. All worldly
objects and relationships are, as Yajnavalkhya explains in
Brih. 2. 4. 5a, of no value for their own sake (as "things
in themselves"), but for the sake of the atman ; nay, they
exist solely in the atman, and that man is utterly and
hopelessly undone who knows them " apart from the
Self" (anyatra dtmano). This atman, he concludes,2 is
Brahman and warrior, is space, gods, and creatures, " this
atman is the entire universe " (idam sarvam yad ayam
dtma). As when a man touches the instrument3 he at
the same time elicits the notes, so when a man has
comprehended the atman he has with it comprehended
all these things : — " Verily he who has seen, heard, com
prehended and known the Self, by him is this entire
universe known." 4

Immediately connected with these conceptions, and
probably even with this passage from the Brihadaranyaka,
is the expression in the Chandogya Up. 6. 1. 2, where
that which in the former place was the climax of a de
velopment is assumed and becomes the theme advanced
for discussion : — " Dost thou then ask for that instruction,
by which the unheard becomes (already) heard, the un-
comprehended comprehended, the unknown known ? "
" What then, most noble sir, is this instruction ? "
"Just as, my dear sir, from a lump of clay everything
that consists of clay is known, the change is a matter of
words alone, a mere name,5 it is in reality only clay,—
thus, my dear sir, is this instruction." Here the manifold
change of the one substance is explained as mere word
play, mere name, exactly as Parmenides asserts that all

1 Chand. 8. 8. 4. 2 L.c. 2. 4. G.

3 Brih. 2. 4. 7 f. 4 Brih. 2. 4. 5*>.

6 vdc'drambhanam vikdro, ndmadheyam.

44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

which meii regard as real is mere name.1 Later passages
employ language that is based on these conceptions, " nor
is this even a plurality,"2 and the verses preserved in
Brih. 4. 4. 19 :3-

In the spirit should this be perceived,
Here there is no plurality anywhere.
From death to death again he rushes blindly
Who fancies that he here sees difference.

Apt and striking also is the remark of a later
Upanishad 4 that no proof of plurality can even be offered,
" for no proof is possible of the existence of a duality, and
only the timeless atman admits of proof," (i.e. we are
incapable of knowing anything outside of our own con
sciousness, which under all circumstances forms a unity).

It is clear from the foregoing: — (1) That the view
which later was most explicitly set forth in the doctrine
of mdyd is so far from being strange to the oldest
Upanishads that it is assumed in and with their funda
mental doctrine of the sole reality of the atman, and
forms its necessary complement ; and (2) that this funda
mental doctrine of the Upanishads is seen to be in mar
vellous agreement with the philosophies of Parmenides
and Plato, and of Kant and Schopenhauer. So fully
indeed is this true, that all three, originating from different
epochs and countries, and with modes of thought entirely
independent, mutually complete, elucidate, and confirm
one another. Let this then suffice for the philosophical
significance of the Upanishads.

3. The Conception of the Upanishads in its Relation
to Religion

The thought referred to, common to India, Plato, and
Kant, that the entire universe is only appearance and not

1 ro) Trai/r' 'oi/o/i' ttrrat, oo-<ra ftporoi KCLTtQtvTO ncrroidoTes flvai d

2 Kaush. 3. 8 3 cp. Xath. 4. 10-11. * Nrisiiiihott. 9.

THE UPANISHADS AND RELIGION 45

reality, forms not only the special and most important
theme of all philosophy, but is also the presumption
and conditio sine qua non of all religion. All great
religious teachers therefore, whether in earlier or later
times, nay even all those at the present day whose
religion rests upon faith, are alike unconsciously followers
of Kant. This we propose briefly to prove.

The necessary premisses of all religion are, as Kant
frequently expounds :— (l) The existence of God, (2) the
immortality of the soul, (3) the freedom of the will
(without which no morality is possible). These three
essential conditions of man's salvation — God, immortality,
and freedom— are conceivable only if the universe is mere
appearance and not reality (mere mdyd and not the
dtman), and they break down irretrievably should this
empirical reality, wherein we live, be found to constitute
the true essence of things.

(1) The existence of God will be precluded by that
of space, which is infinite, and therefore admits of nothing
external to itself, and nothing within save that which
fills it, i.e. matter (the most satisfactory definition of
which is " that which fills space ").

(2) Immortality will be precluded by the conditions
of time, in consequence of which our existence has a
beginning in time by conception and birth, and an end
in time by death ; and this end is absolute, in so far as
that beginning was absolute.

(3) Freedom, and with it the possibility of moral
action, will be precluded by the universal validity of the
law of causality, as shown by experience ; for this requires
that every effect, consequently every human action, should
be the necessary result of causes which precede the action,
and which therefore in the actual moment of action are
no longer within our control.

The question as it concerns God, immortality, and

46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

freedom, stands on an altogether different footing if this

entire empirical reality, the occupant of space and time,

and ruled by causal laws, is mere appearance and not a

disposition of "things in themselves," to use Kant's

words; or is mere may a and not the dtman, the "self"

of things, as the Upaiiishads teach. For in this case

there is room for another, a higher order of things, which

is not subject to the laws of space, time, and causality.

And it is precisely this higher order of things set over-

against the reality of experience, from the knowledge of

which we are excluded by our intellectual constitution,

which religion comprehends in faith by her teaching

concerning God, immortality, and freedom. All religions

therefore unconsciously depend on the fundamental

dogma of the Kantian philosophy, which in a less definite

form was already laid down in the Upanishads. These

last therefore by virtue of their fundamental character lie

naturally at the basis of every religious conception of

existence.

By the side, moreover, of this their value for religion
in general they have a special and very remarkable inner
relation to Christianity, which we cannot state more
briefly and clearly than by repeating in the present
connection, where this consideration is essential, what has
been before said on this subject.1

The Upanishads, it was pointed out, are for the Veda
what the New Testament is for the Bible. And this
analogy is not merely external and accidental, but is funda
mental and based upon a universal law of development
of the religious life which is acknowledged on both sides.

In the childhood of the human race religion enacts
commands and prohibitions, and emphasizes them by

promises of reward and denunciations of punishment ; it

addresses itself to the self-interest, which it assumes to

1 Deussen, Sechziy Upanuhads, Vorrede.

THE UPANISHADS AND RELIGION 47

be the centre and essence of human nature, and beyond
which it does not go.

A higher grade of religious consciousness is attained
with the knowledge that all actions which depend upon
the motives of expectation and fear are of no value for
the ultimate destiny of mankind ; that the supreme
function of existence does not consist in the satisfaction
of self-interest, but in its voluntary suppression ; and that
herein first the true divine reality of ourselves, through
the individual self as through an outer husk, makes itself
manifest.

The primitive standpoint of righteousness by works
is represented in the Bible by the Old Testament law,
which corresponds in the Veda to that which the Indian
theologians call the karmakdnda (the department of
works), under which name is comprised the whole
literature of the Hymns and Brahmanas, with the
exception of portions intercalated here and there in the
spirit of the Upanishads. Both the Old Testament and
the karmakdnda of the Veda proclaim a law, and hold
out the prospect of reward for its observance and of
punishment for its transgression. And if the Indian
theory has the advantage of being able to defer retribution
in part to the future, and by that means to relieve the
conflict with experience that raises so many difficulties
for the Old Testament doctrine of a retribution limited
to this world ; it is, on the other hand, the distinguishing
characteristic of the Biblical law of righteousness, that it
pays less regard than the Indian to ritual prescriptions,
and in their place lays greater stress on a habitually
blameless course of life. For the interests of human
society this advantage is very great. In itself however,
and as far as the moral value of an action is concerned, it
makes no difference whether a man exert himself in the
service of imaginary gods or in that of his fellow-men.

48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

So long as his own well-being lies before him as the
ultimate aim, either is simply a means to this selfish end,
and therefore, like the end itself, from a moral point of
view is to be set aside as worthless.

The recognition of this is seen in the New Testament

O

doctrine of the worthlessness of all works, even those that
are good, and in the corresponding Upanishad doctrine
that altogether rejects works. Both make salvation
dependent not on anything done or left undone, but on a
complete transformation of the natural man as a whole.
Both regard this transformation as a release from the
bonds of this all-embracing empirical reality, which has
its roots in egotism.

Why then do we need a release from this existence ?
Because it is the realm of sin, is the reply of the Bible.
The Veda answers : Because it is the realm of ignorance.
The former sees depravity in the volitional, the latter in
the intellectual side of human nature. The Bible demands
a change of the will, the Veda of the understanding. On
which side does the truth lie ? If man were pure will or
pure intelligence, we should have to decide for one or
the other alternative. But since he is a being who both
wills and knows, the great change upon which the Bible
and the Veda alike make salvation depend must be
realised in both departments of his life. Such a
change is, in the first place, according to the Biblical view
the softening of a heart hardened by natural self-love, and
the inclining it to deeds of righteousness, affection, and
self-denial. It is however, in the second place and side
by side with this, the breaking forth upon us of the light
of the great intellectual truth, which the Upanishads
taught before Kant, that this entire universe, with its
relations in space, its consequent manifoldness and
dependence upon the mind that apprehends, rests solely
upon an illusion (may a], natural indeed to us owing to

THE UPANISHADS AND RELIGION 49

the limitations of our intellect; and that there is in truth one
Being alone, eternal, exalted above space and time, multi
plicity and change, self-revealing in all the forms of nature,
and by me who myself also am one and undivided, dis
covered and realised within as my very Self, as the atman.

As surely however as, to adopt the significant teach
ing of Schopenhauer, the will and not the intellect is the
centre of a man's nature, so surely must the pre-eminence
be assigned to Christianity, in that its demand for a
renewal of the will is peculiarly vital and essential. But
as certainly as man is not mere will, but intellect besides,
so certainly will that Christian renewal of the will make
itself manifest on the other side as a renewal of know
ledge, just as the Upanishads teach. " Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself" is the requirement of the Bible.
But on what grounds is this demand to be based, since
feeling is in myself alone and not in another ? " Because,"
the Veda here adds in explanation, " thy neighbour is in
truth thy very self, and what separates you from him is
mere illusion." As in this case, so at every point of
the system. The New Testament and the Upanishads,
these two noblest products of the religious consciousness
of mankind, are found when we sound their deeper
meaning to be nowhere in irreconcilable contradiction, but
in a manner the most attractive serve to elucidate and
complete one another.

An example may show the value of the Upanishad teach
ing for the full development of our Christian consciousness.

Christianity teaches in spirit, even if not always in the
letter, that man as such is capable only of sinful, that is
selfish actions (Rom. 718), and that all good whether of
purpose or achievement can only be wrought in us by God
(Phil. 213). Clearly as this doctrine— for him who has
eyes to see — is formulated not so much in individual
expressions as rather in the entire system as such, yet it
4

50 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

has been difficult at all times for the Church to rest
satisfied with it. She has sought perpetually an
opportunity of co-ordinating her own imperfect remedial
measures, and of leaving open a side-door for human
co-operation, — clearly because behind the sole operative
power which makes God the source of all good she saw
standing like a frightful apparition the grim monstrosity
of predestination. And indeed this presents itself as an
inevitable consequence as soon as we connect the Christian
conception of the sole agency of God, as profound as
it is true, with the Jewish realism adopted from the
Old Testament, which sets God and man over-against one
another as two mutually exclusive subsistences. In this
darkness there comes to us light from the East, from
India. It is true that Paul also hints at an identification
of God with the avBpwiros irveviJiaTucos (1 Cor. 154 ), it
is true that Kant endeavours to explain the marvellous
phenomenon of the categorical imperative within us on
the theory that the man as real ("thing in itself") lays
down the law to the man as phenomenal ; but how slight
the significance of these timid and groping essays as
compared with the profound and fundamental conception
of the Vedanta, which makes its appearance everywhere
in the Upanishads, that the God, the sole author of all
good in us, is not as in the Old Testament a Being
contrasted with and distinct from us, but rather — without
impairing his absolute antagonism to the depraved self of
experience (jiva) — our own metaphysical I, our divine
self, persisting in untarnished purity through all the
aberrations of human nature, eternal blessed, — in a word,
our dtinan.

This and much more we may learn from the Upani
shads, — we shall learn the lesson, if we are willing to put
the finishing touch to the Christian consciousness, and to
make it on all sides consistent and complete.

THE SYSTEM OF THE UPANISIIADS

INTRODUCTION

BY a system we understand an association of thoughts,
which collectively belong to and are dependent on a
single centre. A system has therefore always an individual
author, whether he have himself originated the thoughts
brought together in the system, or have only adjusted
to one another and welded into a consistent whole im
perfect thoughts derived from without. In this sense a
" system of the Upanishads, " strictly speaking, does not
exist. For these treatises are not the work of a single
genius, but the total philosophical product of an entire
epoch, which extends from the period of the wandering
in the Ganges valley to the rise of Buddhism, or approxi
mately from 1000 or 800 B.C. to c. 500 B.C., but which is
prolonged in its offshoots far beyond this last limit of
time. Thus we find in the Upanishads a great variety
of conceptions which are developed before our eyes, and
which not seldom stand to one another in irreconcilable
contradiction. All these conceptions, however, gather so
entirely around one common centre, and are dominated
so completely by the one thought of the sole reality of
the atman, that they all present themselves as manifold
variations upon one and the same theme, which is treated
at one time more briefly, or again at greater length,
now from the starting-point of the empirical consciousness,
and now in abrupt contradiction thereto. Accordingly

51

52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

all individual differences are so entirely overshadowed
by the one fundamental conception, that while it is true
that we have before us in the Upanishads no defined
system, we are able nevertheless to trace the gradual
development of a system. This Jatter then consists in
the increasingly thorough interweaving of a fundamental
thought originally idealistic with the realistic requirements
of the empirical consciousness, which make their influence
more and more felt. That this is so will appear in the
course of our exposition. These tendencies reached their
climax first in post-Vedic times in the general system at
once theological and philosophical, which was shaped
by the hands of Badarayana and his commentator
S'ankara, and in which full account was taken of the de
mands both of the idealism and the realism (by distinguish
ing between a higher and a lower knowledge). As the
System of the Vedanta this became in India the universal
foundation of faith and knowledge, and has remained so
up to the present day, though undergoing great develop
ment on every side. It falls naturally into four main
divisions, as follows : —

I. Theology ; the doctrine of Brahman as the first
principle of all things.

II. Cosmology ; the doctrine of the evolution of this
principle to form the universe.

III. Psychology; the doctrine of the entrance of
Brahman as soul into the universe evolved from him.

IV. Eschatology and Ethics ; the doctrine of the fate
of the soul after death, and the manner of life which is
therefore required.

The growth also of the System of the Vcdfiuta, as it
is disclosed to us in the Upanishads, may with similar
propriety be discussed under these four principal heads,
and the subdivisions which the nature of the subject
•suggests. We propose to endeavour to collect under each

INTRODUCTION 5 3

heading all the relevant passages of the Upanishads
recognised by the later Vedanta, and where a develop
ment of thought presents itself in them we shall in
many instances be furnished with a safer ground for
determining the chronological position of a text as
compared with earlier and later treatments of the same
theme. The gain for philology therefore will consist in
the provision of a more secure basis for the chronology
of the Upanishad texts according to their relative age ;
while on the philosophical side we may hope for a deeper
insight into the rise of one of the most remarkable and
prolific creations of thought that the world possesses.

FIHST FATCT OF THE SYSTEM OF THE
UPANISHADS

THEOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF BRAHMAN

I. Ox THE POSSIBILITY OF KNOWING BRAHMAN

1. 7,s- the Veda the Source of Knowledge of Brahman f

BADARAYANA begins the Sdriraka-mimdmsd, in which is
contained the oldest systematic epitome of the Vedanta
doctrine, with the following four sutras : — (1) atha ato
brahma-jijndsd, iti, "next what is called the search after
Brahman" ; (2) janma-ddi asya yata\ iti, "(Brahman is
that) from which is the birth etc. (i.e. birth, continuance,
and end) of this (universe)"; (3) s'dstra-yonitvdd, iti,
"an account of its originating from the (sacred) canon "
(i.e. according to one explanation, because the sacred
canon is the source of the knowledge of Brahman as
already defined. To the objection that the canon has in
view not knowledge but worship, it is then said) ; (4) tat
tu, samanvaydt, " that however on account of the agree
ment" (of the assertions respecting Brahman, which, if
they concerned acts of worship alone, would be unnecessary,
or even impossible). To establish in particular cases this
agreement of all the Vedanta texts in their assertions
respecting Brahman is the aim of the entire work of
Badarayana and S'ankara. For them the whole of the
Veda is of supernatural origin, breathed forth by Brahman
(according to a passage to be discussed immediately), and

SOURCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN 55

therefore infallible. From it they construct their entire
doctrine, and only in instances where the meaning of the
Vedanta text is doubtful do they call in the aid of
experience to give the casting vote.

The question arises, what is the teaching of the Upani-
shads themselves with regard to the sources from which
the knowledge of Brahman is to be derived ?

The very oldest Upanishad texts take for granted a
rich store of literary works (transmitted of course only
orally). In Brih. 2. 4. 10, for example, it is said : — "Just
as, when a fire is laid with damp wood, clouds of smoke
spread all around, so in truth from this great Being have
been breathed forth the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Sama-
veda, the (hymns) of the Atharvans and the Angirases, the
narratives, the histories, the sciences, the mystical doctrines
(upanishads), the poems, the proverbs, the parables, and
expositions, — all these have been breathed forth from him."

This passage is in many respects instructive. In the
first place we infer from it that there are only three
Vedas,1 and that the hymns of the Atharvans and
Angirases are not yet recognised as Veda. The first
trace of such recognition is perhaps Brih. 5. 13, where,
together with uktham, yajus and sdman, a fourth kshatram
is named. This may denote the Atharvaveda, which
stands in a closer relation to the warrior caste, and serves
especially to ward off misfortune (tray ate kshanitos, as
kshatram is etymologically explained). To the same pur
port is Brih. 6. 4. 13, where a son who has studied one,
two, or three Vedas is distinguished from one who knows
" all the Vedas," i.e. probably all four. The dtharvana
first appears as a fourth veda in Chand. 7. 1. 2, and under
the name atharva-veda in Mund. 1. 1. 5 ; the latter name
therefore is first met with in the Atharva Upanishads.

1 So generally in the older Upanishad texts, cp. the index to my
" Upanishads " under " Triple knowledge."

56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

The above passage from Brih. 2. 4. 10 further enumerates
a series of works the meaning of which is sometimes
doubtful, but which have probably been in part incorpor
ated in the Brahmanas, in part mark the beginnings of
the later epic. It is, however, especially noticeable that the
" mystical doctrines " (upanishadah) appear only in the
eighth place after itihdsah, purdnam, and vidyd, and are
therefore under no circumstances reckoned to belong to
the Veda. They had not yet become Vedanta. If
therefore, finally, the later teachers of the Vedanta found
on this passage their dogma that the entire Veda is
breathed forth from Brahman and is therefore infallible,
their conclusion would carry with it the infallibility also
of the other works enumerated, and is certainly incorrect.
For the passage originally asserts only that, like all other
natural phenomena, the products of the mind also through
out the universe are derived from Brahman.1 Precisely
the same series of literary works, though with a few addi
tions, is enumerated again by Yajnavalkhya in Brih. 4. 1.
2, is explained as "speech" (vac'), and is found to be
inadequate to convey a knowledge of Brahman. At the
close of this discussion therefore, Janaka, although he Jias
" equipped his soul with that mystical doctrine," has
" studied the Vedas and listened to the mystical doctrine, "
yet is unable to give any account of the fate of the soul
after death. From this it is clear that what was then
understood by upanishad did not of necessity include an
exposition of the highest questions ; exactly, indeed, as in
Chfuid. 8. 8. 5 the erroneous teaching that the essential
being of man consists in the body is characterised as
asurdndm upanishad.

1 The passage is taken up also in S'vet. 4. 18, "from him wisdom pro
ceeded forth at the very beginning" (cp. S'vet. 6. 18, Mund. 2. 1. 4), and
further in Maitr. 6. 32.

2 atlhitaveda and ukta-upanishatka, Brih. 4. 2. 1.

SOURCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN 57

The insufficiency of all Vedic, and in general of all
existing knowledge is still more clearly laid down in
Chand. 7. 1, where Narada acknowledges to Sanatkumara :
— " I have studied, most reverend sir, the Rigveda, Yajur-
veda, Samaveda, the Atharvaveda as fourth, the epic and
mythological poems as fifth veda, grammar, necrology,
arithmetic, divination, chronology, dialectics, politics,
theology, the doctrine of prayer, necromancy, the art of
war, astronomy, snake-charming, and the fine arts,—
these things, most reverend sir, have I studied ; therefore
am I, most reverend sir, learned indeed in the scripture,
but not learned in the atman. Yet I have heard from
such as are like you that he who knows the atman van
quishes sorrow. I, however, most reverend sir, am bewild
ered. Lead me then over, I pray, to the farther shore
that lies beyond sorrow."

Another proof that the study of the Veda does not
touch the most important questions is afforded by the
great transmigration text, which has been preserved in a
threefold form in Chand. 5. 3-10, Brih. 6. 2, and with
considerable variations in Kaush. 1. In all three recen
sions SVetakfitu professes to have been taught by his
father Aruni, but fails to answer the eschatological
questions propounded by the king Pravahana (in the
Kaush., C'itra), and returning in anger to his father
reproaches him : — " So then, without having really done
so, you have claimed to have instructed me";1 " it was
imagination, then, when you previously declared that
my instruction was complete."'

The same thought is expressed in Chand. 6. 1, where
(in a manner otherwise irreconcilable with the passages
already quoted) S'vetaketu is sent from home by his
father Aruni to study the Brahman (i.e. the Veda).
After twelve years " he had thoroughly studied all the

1 Chand. 5. 3. 4. 2 Brih. 6. 2. 3.

58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Vedas (i.e. the Samhitas only of the ric', yajus, and
sama-n, for from these only is he subsequently tested
infra Chand. 0. 7. 2), and returned home full of con
ceit and arrogance, believing himself wise." He fails,
however, to answer his father's questions on the One, the
Self-existent, with whose knowledge everything is known,
— " assuredly my reverend teachers did not themselves
know this ; for had they known it, why did they not tell
it to me ? " Whereupon Aruni imparts to him the perfect
instruction.

This is the standpoint of the Taittiriya Upanishad
also, when it teaches1 that the atman of the mind
(manomaya, " composed of manas ") consists of yajus, ric',
adman, instruction (ddes'a, i.e. probably the Brahmana)
and the hymns of the Atharvas and Angirases ; and pro
ceeds to explain this entire atman of the mind as a mere
husk, which we must strip off in order to penetrate to the
real essence of man or of nature.

The doctrine set forth in these examples finds direct
expression also at an early period : — " So then, after that
the Brahman has rejected learning (pdndityam nir-
vidya), he abides in childhood";2 "He sought not after
the knowledge of the books, which only gives rise to
words without end " ; 3 " Before whom words and thought
recoil, not finding him " ; 4 " Not by learning is the atman
attained, not by genius and much knowledge of books."1
In Mund. 1. 1. 5 also the four Vedas are enumerated, and
together with the six Vedangas are reckoned as inferior
knowledge (apard vidyd), through which the imperishable
Being is not known.

This attitude of aloofness towards the Vedic know
ledge is altered at first gradually and in general, as the
texts of the Upanishads gain fixity, and become the

1 T.iitt. Upan. 2. 3. 2 Brili. 3. *. 1. 3 linh. 4. 4. 21.

4 Taitt. 2. 4. * Kdtb. 2. 23.

SOURCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN 59

Vedanta.1 Henceforth they, and the Veda with them,
are regarded as sources of the highest knowledge. A first
trace of this change is shown in Brih. 3. 9. 26, where
Yfijfiavalkhya inquires after the purusha of the upanishad
doctrine (aupanishada purusha) ; this S'akalya does not
know, and thereupon acknowledges defeat. Further, in
Cliand. 3. 5. 4, where the Veda is explained to be nectar,
the Upanishads, the guliya ddes'dh, are the nectar of
nectar. In Kena 33 the Upanishads are apparently
attached to the Veda, or more precisely comprise a brief
summary of the entire Vedic material of instruction
under the Veda ; for there the Vedas are explained to
be "the sum of the parts" (veddh sarvdhgdni), the
" secret doctrine of Brahman " (brdhmt upanishad, in con
trast with other unrecognised Upanishads, such as the
asurdndm upanishad referred to above). With the
adoption of the name Veddnta the Upanishads are seen
to be completely naturalised in the Veda. The term first
occurs in S'vet. 6. 22 : — " From of old was the deepest
secret disclosed in the Vedanta." This transfer of the
Vedanta to antiquity (purdkalpa) seems to show that the
author looks back to the Brih., Chand., and other Upani
shads of which he makes use from a certain distance. It
might, however, be understood as a mere expression of the
high value attached to them, a value that increases with
the lapse of time. The Vedanta texts appear completely
established in their later position as sources of the know
ledge of Brahman, which is to be gained through the
interpretation they offer, in the verse which occurs Mund.
3. 2. 6:2 — veddnta - vijndna - sunis'c'ita - arthdh, etc.,
"they who have correctly (su) penetrated the meaning of
the Vedanta knowledge." With this Mund. 2. 2. 3-4
agrees, where the Upanishads, and the syllable Om as
their most essential element, are described as the bow,

1 sup. p. 21. 2 Also Mahan. 10. 22, Kaivalya 3.

60 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

with which men shoot at Brahman as the mark. It is
otherwise, however, in Mund. 1. 1. 5, where all the four
Vedas are rejected. The latter passage seems therefore
to be derived from an earlier period.

2. Preparatory Means to a Knowledge of Brahman

In later times a kind of via salutis was constructed in
the four ds'ramas, or life-stages, according to which every
Indian Brfihman was under obligation to devote himself
first as a brahmac'drin to the study of the Veda, then as
(/rih'tstha to the duties of the sacrifice and other good
works, next as vdnaprastha to the practice of asceticism
in the jungle, and finally towards the end of life as pari-
vrdjaka (bhikshu, sannydsin) to a wandering existence
without possessions or home, awaiting only his soul's
release and its reception into the supreme atman.

As originally conceived we find these three ds'ramas in
Brih. 4. 4. 22 : — " The Brahmans endeavour to know him
by study of the Veda (brahmac'drin), by sacrifice and alms
giving (grihastha), by penance and fasting (vdnaprastha) ;
he who knows him becomes a muni; to him the pilgrims
journey, when they yearn for home (parivrdjaka)." Here
a certain value as preparatory means to a knowledge of
Brahman appears to be assigned to the duties of the later
ds'ramas (i.e. study of the Veda, sacrifice, asceticism).

In Chand. 2. 23. 1 it is still more clearly expressed :—
" There are three branches of duty : sacrifice with study
of the Veda and almsgiving is the first (grihastha) ;
asceticism is the second (vdnaprastha) ; the student
(brahmac'drin) who lives in the house of his teacher is the
third, provided that he remains always (as naishthika) in
the teacher's house. These all carry as their reward the
divine worlds ; he, however, who abides steadfast in Brah
man wins immortality." This passage names only three
ds'ramas, recognises their value, but contrasts with all

THE FOUR AS'RAMAS 61

three the " abiding steadfast in Brahman " ; and this last
is then subsequently developed into a fourth ds'rama. An
other passage x endeavours by a series of bold etymologies
to prove that sacrifice, silence, fasting, and a life in the
forest (the pursuits, that is to say, of the grihastha and
vdnaprastha) are essentially brahmac'aryam ; which
term must be understood to include here not only the
student-period, but in a broader sense, as the repeated
reference to it shows, the entire course of life of a Brahman
regarded as the way that leads to the atman. In all that
this aim requires — that would seem to be the meaning
of the passage — lies the peculiar value of the observances
of the ds'ramas. More definitely in Kena 33, asceticism,
self-restraint, and sacrifice (tapas, dama, karman) are
described as the preliminary conditions (pratishthdh)
of the brdhmi upanishad, i.e. of the real mystical
doctrine which reveals Brahman. And in Kath. 2. 15 all
the Vedas, all the practices of tapas and the brahmac'ar-
yam, are described as means by which the syllable Om
(here equivalent to the knowledge of Brahman) is to be
sought as the final aim. The observances of the ds'ramas
are recognised also in Mund. 2. 1. 7, in so far as these
(tapas, s'raddhd, satyam, brahmac'aryam, vidhi) are here
described as a creation of Brahman.

With regard to the particular as'ramas, the study of
the Veda has been already discussed above, and we pro
pose here merely to summarise the most important teach
ing of the Upanishads concerning sacrifice and asceticism.

3. The Sacrifice

The older Upanishads were so deeply conscious of the
hostile character of the entire ritualistic system of the
Brahmans that they could concede to it only a relative
recognition. It is true that direct attacks are rarely found

1 Chand. 8. 5.

62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in the extant texts. Antagonistic explanations, however,
of the sacrificial rites are all the more frequently offered by
way either of allegorical interpretation or of the substitution
of other and usually psychological ideas in their place.

There is a note almost of mockery in Brill. 1. 4. 10
when it is said : — " He who worships another divinity
(than the atman), and says ' it is one and I am another,' is
not wise, but he is like a house-dog of the gods. There
fore just as many house-dogs are useful to men, every
individual man is useful to the gods. Now the theft of
only one house-dog is displeasing, how much more of
many ? Therefore it is displeasing to them that men do
not know this." The remark of Yajfiavalkhya also, in
Brih. 3. 9. 6, sounds very contemptuous : — " What is the
sacrifice ? — brute beasts ! " nor is it less so in Brih. 3. 9. 21,
where it is said that Yama (the god of the dead) has his
abode in the sacrifice, but the sacrifice in the fees.

Daring remarks like these we do not find in the
Chandogya, unless it be in the "Song of the Dog" in
Chand. 1. 12, which seems to have been originally a satire
on the greedy begging propensities of the priests, to
which in later times an allegorical interpretation was
given. In Chand. 1. 10-11 also the story is told, not
without a malicious pleasure, how the three priests
assembled at the sacrifice were put to confusion by a
wandering beggar ; and in Chand. 4. 1-3 Janas'ruti,
" rich in faith, open-handed, munificent " (s'raddhddeyo,
bahuddyt, bahupdkyah), is compelled not without humili
ation to seek instruction from a poor vagrant.

According to the general view, sacrifice and good
works give admission only to the " way of the fathers"
(pitriydna), which after a temporary sojourn in the moon
leads back to a new earthly existence. As early as Brih.
1. 5. 16 it is said : — " by the labour (of the sacrifice) is the
world of the fathers won, by knowledge the world of the

SACRIFICE 63

gods " ; and other passages describe the way of the fathers
which leads back again to earth as the fate of those " who
worship in the village with the words ' Sacrifice and deeds
of piety are our offering,' " l " who by sacrifice, almsgiving
and ascetic practices gain the (heavenly) worlds," 2 " who
worship with the words ' Sacrifice and deeds of piety are
our work,' " 3 " regarding sacrifice and deeds as the highest
good, they know no better and are befooled."

Not rarely a meaning suitable to the new doctrine is
read into the existing sacrificial rites. In Brih. 1. 4. 6,
for example, the five daily offerings (mahdyajndh) are
interpreted as a sacrifice to the atman ; and in Chand. 4.
11-14 the three sacrificial fires are explained as forms of
the atman's manifestation (eshd asmadvidyd dtmavidyd
c'a).

Yet more frequently conditions of the atman, as em
bodied in the world of nature or of man, were substituted
for the ceremonies of the ritual. In Brih. 3. 1, in place of
the four priests as organs of the gods, there are found
speech, eye, breath and manas as organs of the atman. In
Chand. 4. 16 the wind is explained to be the essence of
the sacrifice, mind and speech the essence of the sacrificing
priests. In Ait. Ar. 3. 2. 6, Brih. 1. 5. 23, and Kaush. 2. 5,
inhalation and speech replace the agnihotram ; and this
thought is further developed on the basis of Chand. 5.
11-24 into the theory of the prdndgnihotram, a fuller dis
cussion of which will be given below. The substitution also
for the sacrifice of the man, his organs and bodily functions,
is greatly favoured. For example, in Chand. 3. 16 the
three life-periods take the place of the three pressings of the
soma, in Chand. 3. 17 human activities of the various acts of
the soma festival, and in Mahanar. 64 the bodily organs
of the implements of the sacrifice. This last thought is

1 Chand. 5. 10.3. «Brih. 6. 2. 16.

8 Pras-na 1.9. 4 Muncl. 1. 2. 10.

64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

carried out in extreme detail in Pranaguihotra Up. 3-4.
The verse Taitt. 2. 5 also belongs here, inasmuch as,
correctly translated, it asserts, — " JIe_pi-esents knowledge
as his sacrifice, knowledge as his works."

It is first in the later Upanishads that we meet with
a more friendly attitude towards the sacrificial cult. In
Kath. 1. 17, in a style altogether excessive and opposed to
the upanishad spirit, there is promised for the fulfilment
of certain ceremonies and works " the overstepping of birth
and death," "entrance into everlasting rest"; and in
Kath. 3. 2 the Nac'iketa fire is explained as the bridge
which bears the sacrificers to the supreme eternal Brahman,
to the " fearless shore." Here even if we make allowance
for poetical extravagance of expression, a co-operation at
least with the cult for the attainment of salvation is
asserted. S'vet. 2. 6-7 marks a further step in ad
vance : —

Where Agni from the chips of wood
Darts forth, where Vayu too appears,
Where the Soma also flows freely, —
There is the manas developed.

By Savitar, at his impulse,

Delight yourselves in the ancient prayer ;

If there you take your stand,

The deeds of the past soil you no more.

The expression here used, " Delight yourselves in the
ancient prayer" (jusheta brah ma pdrvyam) indicates that
a former practice is reintroduced and held in honour.
This reaction attains its climax in the Maitrayaniya Up.,
which explains at the very outset1 that "the fire-laying
for the ancestors " is in truth "a sacrifice to Brahman " ;
and in the fourth Prapathaka ventures the thought that
without study of the Veda, observance of caste-duties,
and the following of the due brahmauieal order of life

-

1 Maitr. 1.1.

ASCETICISM 65

according to the &s'ramas, the deliverance of the natural
atman and its re-union with the supreme atman are
impossible. The key to the understanding of this reaction
is given by the polemic against the heretics which is
found in Maitr. 7. 8-10. Brahmanism, in view of the con
sequences which the attitude of the earlier Upanishads had
entailed in Buddhism and similar manifestations, returns
to its original position.

4. Asceticism (tapas)

A feeling of admiration has always been excited when,
contrary to the natural desires which all experience for
life, pleasure and prosperity, there has been exhibited a
self-mastery, which voluntarily submits to privations and
sufferings either for the sake of the well-being of others,
or independently of this external and as it were accidental
aim, which indeed as far as the real worth of the respect
ive actions is concerned is in itself without significance.
An act of self-denial would seem the more pure the
less it were combined with any external end, and the
more it were undertaken with the sole object of subduino-
the selfish impulses of nature. It were as though a super
human, supernatural power had been thereby manifested
in man, which, springing from the deepest roots of his
being, exalted the doer far above the world of men with
its selfish interests, yea even above the world of the gods,
and in another and higher order of things than ours
assigned to him his place.

It is a tribute to the high metaphysical capacity of the
Indian people, that the phenomenon of asceticism made
its appearance among them earlier and occupied a larger
place than among any other known people. (We leave
out of consideration at this point the later misuse of
asceticism in the interest of merely selfish aims to excite
wonder or to secure profit.)
5

66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

As early as the creation myths we saw how the creator of
the universe prepared himself for his work by the practice
of tapas ; in which word the ancient idea of the "heat"
which serves to promote the incubation of the egg of
the universe blends with the ideas of the exertion, fatigue,
self-renunciation, by means of which the creator is trans
muted (entirely or in part) into the universe which he
proposes to create. According to this conception, every
thing that is great in the universe is dependent on tapas.
In a later hymn of the Rigveda also,1 truth and right,
and with them the entire universe, are born of tapas.
From s'rama (toil) and tapas the first-born Skambha arose
and permeated the universe,2 in tapas he was rocked on
the surface of the primeval waters.3 By the tapas with
which he discharges his duties the student of the Veda,
according to another hymn,4 satisfies his teacher, the
gods, and the realms of space, ascends on high as the
sun, protects both worlds, etc., in his course of life as
a Brahman. By tapas the ruler protects his kingdom,
the gods have escaped death, the student of the Veda
practised tapas in the primeval ocean, when he, creating
the universe, stood on the water's surface. And as early
even as the Rigveda the seven rishis together betake
themselves to the practice of tapas ; 5 and the souls on
their entrance into heaven are apostrophised :—

Whicli invincible by tapas,
Have won their way by tapas to the light,
That have accomplished the severest tapas — ,
To these now enter in ! 6

Another hymn of the Rigveda 7 portrays the inspired
muni as with long hair, in dirty yellow robes, girt only with

1 X. 190. 1. 2 Atharvav. X. 7. 36.

8 Atharvav. X. 7. 38. 4 Atharvav. XL 5.

* Rigv. X. 109. 4. c Rigv. X. 154. 2.

• Rigv. X. 136.

ASCETICISM 6;

the wind lie roams on the desert paths. Mortals behold
only his body. But he himself, endowed with super
natural power, flies through the air, drinks with the storm-
god from the bowl of both the oceans of the universe, on
the track of the wind is raised aloft to the gods, transcends
all forms, and as companion of the gods co-operates with
them for the salvation of mankind.

By the time of the oldest Upanishad texts the ascetic
life has already been elevated into a special " calling,"1
which assumes equal rank by the side of the position' of
householder. Men abandon household goods and family,
as Yajfiavalkhya does in Brih. 2. 4, and depart into the
solitude of the forest in order to practise tapas, and by
gradually increasing privations and penances to destroy
in themselves the last remains of dependence on earthly
existence.

It remains to inquire what attitude was adopted
by the authors and defenders of the doctrines of the
Upanishads in presence of this cult of an ascetic
ideal.

The Chandogya Upanishad sets before us in the first
place Upakosala, a student of the Veda, who grieves2
that the teacher refuses to impart to him knowledge, and
falling sick declines to take nourishment. To the°invita-
tion to eat he replies :— " Alas, in mankind there are such
troops of desires. I am full of sickness, and incapable of
eating." (In these words the characteristic motive of
Indian, as of all asceticism, is evident.) Thereupon the
three sacrificial fires take pity on him, and the instruc
tion which they give to him begins with the words :—
" Brahman is life, Brahman is joy (kcm), Brahman is space
(kliam}" It is implied in these words that Brahman, as
the principle of life, of bliss (kam = dnanda, as in Chand.

1 dharmaskandha, Chand. 2. 23.

2 tapto brahmac'dri, 4. 10. 2-4.

68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

7. 23 sukham), and of infinity, is not to be attained by
the way of a gloomy asceticism.

In Chand. 2. 23 tapas is spoken of as the especial
obligation of the anchorite. As such, a recognised position
is accorded it by the side of the student and householder.
All three " bring as their reward the divine worlds ; he,
however, who abides steadfast in Brahman wins im
mortality." This is not in contradiction with the
statement of Chand. 5. 10. 1, that the way of the gods,
which leads to Brahman without return, and marks still
for the present time the loftiest aim, is promised to those
ye c'a ime 'ranye l s'raddhd tapa ' iti updsate ; for these
words mean, " those who worship in the forest using the
words ' faith is our asceticism.' ': The reference is to the
anchorite ; but something else — viz. faith — is here sub
stituted for the asceticism which is his calling.

To the same effect the Brihadaranyaka Upan. expresses
itself when, reproducing this passage in an appendix,1 it yet
more definitely opens up the prospect of the way of the gods
to those alone " who observe faith and truth in the forest " ;
but on the other hand offers only the way of the fathers in re
turn for sacrifice, almsgiving, and asceticism. Of these last
it is said2 that through them men seek to know Brahman,
vividishanti. More directly still Yajfiavalkhya expresses
himself in Brih. 3. 8. 10 :— " Of a truth, 0 Gargi, he who
does not know this imperishable one, and in this world sacri
fices and distributes alms and does penance (tapas tapyate)
for many thousands of years, wins thereby only finite
(reward)." Brih. 5. 11 again teaches that sickness the
procession to the grave and cremation are the best
asceticism (paramam tapas). Here, then, the suffer
ings of life and death are rated higher than artificially
induced penances.

We meet with a disposition more favourable to asceti-

1 Brih. G. '2. 15. 2 Brih. 4. 4. 22.

ASCETICISM 69

cism as early as the Taittiriya Upanishad. The first part
which is appointed for the student demands of him1
asceticism and the study of the Veda, and quotes in this
connection the views of two teachers, of whom the one
requires " asceticism alone," the other only study of the
Veda, "for this is asceticism." The Upanishad adopts
an intermediate position by its demand for asceticism
combined with the study of the Veda. In the last and
latest part2 a higher value is placed upon asceticism,
where Bhrigu is repeatedly urged by his father Varuna :—
"By tapas seek to know Brahman, for tapas is Brahman."
Following his injunction, by progressive tapas he rises
step by step to the recognition of food, the vital breath,
manas, knowledge, and finally bliss as Brahman, and with
this last the highest degree attainable by tapas is reached.
The Mahanarayana Upan., which is attributed to the
Taittiriya school, is much later still ; in 62. 11 it sets nydsa,
"renunciation," above asceticism, thereby preparing the
way for the standpoint of the Sannyasa Upanishad ; of
which later. Kena 33 also, as already mentioned, reckons
tapas among the foundations (i.e. the presuppositions,
pratishthdh) of Brahman; and according to S'vet. 1. 15,
16 ; 6. 21, the knowledge of Brahman is based upon
dtmavidyd (the text of the Vedanta) and tapas.

A step, however, far beyond all the preceding is taken
by the Mundaka and Pras'na in their reproduction of the
above-mentioned theory of the Chand. and Brihad. con
cerning the ways of the gods and the fathers with a
characteristic variation. In Mimd. 1. 2. 11 the way of
the gods is promised to those " who practise asceticism and
faith in the forest " (tapah-s'raddhe ye hi upavasanti
aranye); and Pras'na 1. 10 offers it to those "who have
sought the atman by asceticism, the manner of life of a
Brahman, faith and knowledge." It is remarkable that

1 Taitt. 1.9. 2 Taitt. 3.

70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in Mund. 3. 2. 4 a spurious tapas is mentioned (tapas
alingam), i.e. probably one that lacks the characteristic
mark of knowledge.

As was to be expected, in the Maitr. Upan. is revived
the ancient Vedic standpoint in regard to tapas, in presence
of Buddhist and other errors. It is true that asceticism
alone does not suffice, for in Maitr. 1. 2 it is practised in
the severest form by Brihadratha without procuring for
him the knowledge of the atman. As a preliminary con
dition, however, it is indispensable : — " without being an
ascetic it is impossible either to attain the knowledge of
the atman, or to bring work to fruition." 1

5. Other Preliminary Conditions

In the older Upanishads we are repeatedly met by the
prohibition to communicate a doctrine or ceremony to
anyone except a son or a pupil adopted by the rite of
upanayanam. In Ait. Ar. 3. 2. 6. 9 the mystical
meaning of the combinations of the letters must be
" communicated to no one, who is not a pupil, who has
not been a pupil for a whole year, who does not propose
himself to be a teacher." ! In Chand. 3. 11.5 the doctrine
of Brahman as the sun of the universe should "his father
make known as Brahman to his eldest son alone, or to
a trusted pupil, but to no one else, whoever he may
be. And though he were to be offered in return for it all
the kingdoms of the ocean-girdled earth, yet should he
bethink himself ' the other is of greater value.' ': In
Brih. 0. 3. 12 also the ceremony of the mixed drink
" must be communicated to none but a son or a
pupil."

Similarly in the Upanishads we find men and gods
taking the fuel in their hands, and submitting to the con-

1 na atapaskasya dtmajndne 'dhigamah, karmasi'dflhir vd, M;iitr. 4. 3.
3 cp. also Ait. Ar. 5. 3. 3. 4.

OTHER PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS 71

ditions of pupilage, just as according to Chanel. 8, 11. 3
India himself was obliged to live with Prajapati as a pupil
for one hundred and one years in order to obtain the perfect
instruction. Other examples are Kaush. 1. 1, 4. 19, Brih.
2. 1. 14, Pras'na 1. 1, Mund. 1. 2. 12.

Yet in the earlier period this demand is still not
absolute. In Chand. 4. 9. 3 it is merely said that
" the knowledge which is gained from a teacher (as
opposed to supernatural instruction by beasts, fire, geese
or ducks l) leads most certainly to the goal " ; and in
Chand. 5. 11. 7 the king As'vapati instructs the six
Brahmans who approach him with the fuel in their hands
(in token of their wish to become pupils) anupaniya,
"without first admitting them as his pupils." So also
in Brih. 2. 4 Yajnavalkhya instructs his wife Maitreyi,
and in Brih. 4. 1-2, 3-4 the king Janaka, who yet were
not strictly his pupils ; and in Brih. 3 he imparts in
formation on the deepest questions (as e.g. Brih. 3. 8,
in the conversation with Gargi) in the presence of a
numerous circle of hearers, and only exceptionally, when
he desires to explain to Artabhaga the mystery of the
soul's transmigration, does he retire with him into
privacy.2 Ordinarily, however, a teacher is necessary to dis
perse the mist of empirically acquired knowledge from our
eyes (a^(\w S'av rot, air o<pOa\fjL(ov e\ov, r) irplv eV/Jer, — as
Schopenhauer represents the spirit of Kant saying to him
in the words of Homer), and of this in particular the
beautiful passage in Chand. 6. 14 treats : — " Precisely,
my dear sir, as a man who has been brought blindfold
from the country of Gandhara (beyond the Indus), and
then set at liberty in the desert, goes astray to the east
or north or south, because he has been brought thither
blindfold, and blindfold set at liberty ; but after that
someone has taken off the bandage, and has told him,

1 Tauchervogel, "divers." 2Brih. 3. 2. 13.

72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

' In this direction Gandlmra lies, go in this direction,'
instructed and prudent, asking the road from village to
village, he finds his way home to Gandhara ; even so the
man, who in this world has met with a teacher, becomes
conscious, ' To this (transitory world) shall I belong only
until the time of my release, thereupon shall I go home.' "
The teacher is represented as indispensable to knowledge
in Kath. 2. 8: — "Apart from the teacher there is no
access here " ; from which the incidental conclusion may
be drawn, that at the time of the Kath. Upan. the older
Upanishads were not yet committed to writing.

The later Vedanta mentions, side by side with the
external (vdhya) means to a knowledge of Brahman
(study of the Veda, sacrifice, almsgiving, penance, fasting),
as more direct (pratydsanna) means the following :
tranquillity of mind, self-restraint, renunciation, patience,
collectedness.1 This requirement may be traced back to
Brih. 4. 4. 23 : — " Therefore he who knows this is
tranquil, self-restrained, self-denying, patient, and col
lected." It is true that a doubt arises whether this
passage has reference to the means of acquiring the
knowledge of Brahman, or rather to the fruits of that
knowledge (whether Lhutvd here signifies " after that he
has become," or "since he is"). By the later Upanishads
it is understood already, as later still by S'ankara, in the
first sense, e.g. Kath. 2. 24: — "No one who has not
ceased from violence, who is restless, unsubdued, whose
heart is not yet tranquil, can by searching attain unto
him." The expressions here used, avirata, as'dnta,
asamdhita, refer back unquestionably to the s'dnto, ddnta\
uparatas, titikshuh, samdhito IMtvd of the passage
from the Brihadaranyaka. The same is true also of
pras'dntac'ittdya, s'amanvitdya, declared in Mund. 1. 2.
13 to be presuppositions of instruction.

1 Cp. also Vedantasara 17-23.

OTHER PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS 73

In later Upanisliads this preliminary requirement is
connected with the demand already referred to for a
teacher. E.g. S'vet. 6. 22 : — " Impart it to no one, who
is not tranquil (na apras'dntdya), who is not a son or
a pupil (na aputrdya as'ishydya vd)." Similarly, and
perhaps with a reminiscence of this passage, in Maitr. 6.
29 : — " This profoundest mystery of all is to be revealed
to no one, who is not a son or a pupil (na aputrdya, na
as'ishydya), and who has not yet become tranquil (na
as'dntdya}"

The finding a teacher, and the five requirements of
tranquillity of mind, self-restraint, renunciation, patience,
collectedness, are the preliminary conditions that con
tinually recur. With them others are occasionally
mentioned; for example, in Chand. 7. 26. 2, purity of
food, and as a consequence purity of nature (sattva-
8'uddhi). The latter, like so much besides from Chand.
7, is reproduced in Mund. 3 in the verse 3. 2. 6, and
thence passed over into Mahanar. 10. 22 and Kaivalya
3-4. In Kath. 6. 9 an indefinite requirement is laid
down, that a man should be " prepared in heart and
feeling and spirit"; and in Mund. 3. 2. 10-11 participa
tion in the Brahma vidya is combined with the preliminary
condition of the fulfilment of the " vow of the head"
(s'irovratam), by which is probably to be understood, not
as S'ankara s'irasi agnidhdranam, but merely the practice,
which is already implied in the name Mundaka, of
shaving the head bare. In still later Upanishads also
we occasionally meet with special limitations on this
participation. Thus Nrisimhap. 1. 3 prohibits the com
munication of the maxims of the members (not the king
of the maxims1) to a woman or a S'Mra, and Ramap.
84 enjoins that the diagram must not be imparted to
common (illiterate, prdkrita) men.

1 Mantrardja, i.e. the charm or magical song.

74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

6. The Standpoint of Ignorance, of Knowledge, and
of superior Knowledge in relation to Brahman

The general view that lies at the basis of the Upani-
shads is that _Brahman, i.e. the atman, is an object of
knowledge. " The atman, in truth, should be seen, heard,
comprehended, reflected upon."1 "The Self . . . that
should we search for and endeavour to know."2 To the
same effect are numerous other passages. And the aim
of all the Upanishad texts is to communicate this
knowledge of Brahman.3

Very soon, however, it came to be realised that this'
knowledge of Brahman was essentially of a different
nature from that which we call " knowledge" in ordinary
life. For it would be possible, like Narada in Chand. 7.
1. 2, to be familiar with all conceivable branches of
knowledge and empirical science, and yet to find oneself
in a condition of ignorance (amdya) as regards the
Brahman. This thought, originally purely negative,
became in course of time more and more positive in its
character. It was negative in so far as no experimental
.knowledge led to a knowledge of Brahman ; and it was
positive in so far as the consciousness was aroused that
the knowledge of empirical reality was an actual
hindrance to the knowledge of Brahman. The concep
tion of avidyd was developed from the negative idea of
mere ignorance to the positive idea of false knowledge.
The experimental knowledge which reveals to us a world
of plurality, where in reality only Brahman exists, and a
body where in reality there is only the soul, must be a
mistaken knowledge, a delusion, a mdyd. This is a very
noteworthy step in advance. It is the same which
Parmenides and Plato took when they affirmed that the
knowledge of the world of sense was mere deception, etSwXa ;

1 Bj-ih. 2. 4. 5. 2 Chand. 8. 7. 1. 3 brahmavidyd, dtmavidyd.

IGNORANCE AND KNOWLEDGE 75

which Kant took, when he showed that the entire reality
of experience is only apparition and not reality (" thing
in itself"). It is of the greatest interest to follow up the
earliest foreshadowings of this thought in India, and to
trace how the term avidyd passed from the negative idea
of ignorance to the positive idea of a false knowledge.

The first suggestion of this is found already in the
Kigveda, where in X. 81. 1 it is said of the great All-
father that he, when he entered into the lower world, was
prathamac'had, " veiling his original nature." ' Further,
an obscure passage of the S'atapatha Brahmana 2 describes
how Brahman, when creating the upper and the lower
worlds together with their gods, " revealed " himself, how
he projected himself into them by means of his two " great
immensities " (abhva), his two " great appearances "
(yaksha), that is to say by means of his names and forms,
but how he himself " entered into the half beyond "
(pardrdham agac'c'hat).

The further development of these thoughts is found
in the Upanishads. In Brih. 1. 6. 3 the world of names,
forms, and works is defined (by means of one of those
brief mystical formulae, of which perhaps the most ancient
" Upanishads " consisted, sup. p. 16 f.) Si^amritam satyena
c'hannam, " the immortal (Brahman) yelled by the
(empirical) reality." The explanation of the formula is
added immediately : — "The Prana (i.e. the atman) to wit
is the immortal, name and form are the reality ; by these
the Prana is veiled." As here (and in Taitt. 2. 6, — " as
reality he becomes everything that exists ; for reality is
the name given to it" ), so also in Brih. 2. 1. 20 the word
jatycwi^dQiiotes the reality of experience ; in this latter
passage it is said in another " Upanishad " with an added
explanation : — " Its Upanishad is ' the reality of reality,'

1 mukhyam, nishprapanvam, pdramdrthikam rupam dvrinvan, Say ana.

2 11. 2. 3.

76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(satyasya satyam); that is to say, the vital spirits
(together with the worlds, gods, and living creatures, as
we may infer from that which precedes) are the reality,
and he is their reality." He is — so we are to understand
—in the so-called reality that part of it which is actually
real. This is also the meaning of the illustrations in
Brih. 2. 4. 7-9 : the atman is the musical instrument
(drum, conch, lyre), the phenomena of the universe are its
notes ; just as the notes can only be seized when the
instrument is seized, so the world of plurality can only
be known when the atman is known ; only of him is
there knowledge, all else is "not knowledge." Similarly
Chand. G. 1. 3 teaches that the "transformation" of the
atman into the manifold world of phenomena is only
vac'drambhanam, " a matter of words," or ndmadheyam,
"a mere name," and that "in reality" there exists only
the One Being, i.e. the Atman. It is only of him there
fore that a real knowledge is possible. All experimental
knowledge, the four Vedas and the whole series of
empirical sciences, as they are enumerated in Chand. 7. 1.
2-3, are, as is there said, ndma eva, " mere name " ; and
Narada, deeply versed as he is in them, finds himself in
"darkness," from which first by the knowledge of the
atman is he guided across to the other shore.1 Souls
and the "real desires" by which they are affected for
continued life after death in the world of Brahman are,
as expounded in Chand. 8. 3. 1-2, by the empirical
knowledge which teaches annihilation at death "veiled
in unreality. They really exist, but unreality is spread
over them." And "just as he who is ignorant of
its hiding-place fails to find the golden treasure,
though he pass and repass it continually, so all these
creatures fail to find this world of Brahman though they
daily enter into it ; for by unreality are they turned aside."

1 CLiiiid. 7. 26. '2.

IGNORANCE AND KNOWLEDGE 77

What is here described a^ empty word, mere name,
darkness, unreality, i.e. the entire empirical knowledge of
things, is further denoted by avidyd, " ignorance." This
term occurs perhaps for the first time in Brih. 4. 4. 3, 4,
where it is said of the soul, when it casts off the body in
death, that it " dismisses ignorance " (avidydm gamayitvd).
Ignorance is henceforth the knowledge that rests on
experience; true knowledge is only of Brahman. Like
Plato's teaching that only the eternal is an object of
e7r«roj/tM7, while of the world of phenomena subject to
the flux of Heraclitus only a Sofa is possible, in S'vet. 5. 1
the explanation is given : — " Ignorance is the fleeting,
knowledge is the eternal," l i.e. it is an object of knowledge.
Kath. 2. 1-6 contrasts ignorance and knowledge with
poetic vividness ; the goal of ignorance is pleasure (preyas),
the goal of knowledge is salvation (s'reyas). The former
says, "this is the world" (ayam loko) ; the gaze of the
latter is directed on another world : —

Widely different indeed and contrasted are the things
Which men call knowledge and ignorance,
I see Nac'iketas endeavouring to gain knowledge ;
The troop of pleasures has not deluded thee.

Wandering in the depth of ignorance,
Deeming themselves wise and learned,
Thus aimlessly fools tramp hither and thither,
Like blind men led by comrades blind as they.

The last verse is further amplified in Mund. 1. 2. 8-10 ;
and both verses are quoted in Maitr. 7. 9. The subject
is similarly treated in the verses Brih. 4. 4. 11-12, which
are a later insertion (cp. Kath. 1. 3) : —

These worlds indeed are joyless,
Shrouded in thick darkness ;
Into them after death all go
Who are unenlightened and ignorant.

1 ksharam tu avidyd hi amritam tu vidyd.

;8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Yet he who perceives the titman,
And is conscious that " I am he " ;
What desire what love could he still have
For the body racked with pain !

The infatuation of ignorance is yet more strongly depicted
in IsTi 3 :—

This universe indeed is demon-haunted,

Shrouded in thick darkness,

Therein go to death all

Who have slain their own souls.

Since the knowledge of the atman is contrasted with
the reality of experience as the realm of ignorance, it
cannot be gained by mere speculation (tarka) concerning
it, but only by a revelation communicated through
the teacher.1 According jis the atman is conceived as
a divine person, this revelation is represented as an act of
his grace : 2-
* p

Not through instruction is the atman won,
I Not through genius or much book-learning ;
/ Only by the man whom he chooses is he comprehended :
/ To him the atman reveals his essence.

/_ .—

Another verse,3 which in all probability originally pro
mised the vision of the atman concealed in the heart to
him who " by pacifying the organs of sense"4 has become
"indifferent" (akratu), has received a theistic colouring
in S'vet. 3. 20 and Mahanar. 10. 1, in that it represents
the knowledge of the atman (whose abode is here also still
in the heart) as received " by the favour of the creator."5
A still more pronounced theism, that has wandered far
from the original conceptions of the doctrine of the atman,
is exhibited by the entire S'vetas'vatara Upanishad, and

1 Kath. 2. 7-9. 2 Kath. 2. 23, repeated in Mund. 3. 2. 3.

3 Kath. 2. 20, as read by S'ankara.

4 dJidtu-prasdddd ; cp. Chand. G. 15, dtmanisarvendriydnisampratishthdpya.
•"' dhdtuh prasdddd.

IGNORANCE AND KNOWLEDGE 79

especially by the prayers for spiritual enlightenment to
Savitar, Rudra, and Brahman which are interwoven with
it in 2. 1-5, 3. 1-6, 4. 1.

The doctrine thus far set forth, according to which
Brahman or the atman becomes known by virtue of a
(metaphysical) knowledge, is transcended within the
limits of the Upanishads themselves by another and
undeniably more profound conception, according to which
there neither is nor can be a knowledge of the atman as
the sole all-pervading essence of things. For such know
ledge assumes a_knowing subject and a known object, and
therefore a dualism ; the atman, however, forms an absolute
unity. We propose briefly to trace the development of
this thought under the guidance of the texts.

The primitive source of the entire conception of the
unknowableness of the atman is to be found in the
speeches of Yajnavalkhya in the Brihadaranyaka ; and
the daring and abruptness with which the doctrine is
here introduced, as well as the originality of the method
by which it is established, seem to point to an individual
as its author. In his discourse with Maitreyi Yajnaval
khya propounds, in Brih. 2. 4. 12, the paradoxical asser
tion, — "after death there is no consciousness"; and
proceeds to confirm it with the words : — " For where
there is as it were a duality (in reality there is not),
there one sees the other, smells, hears, addresses, compre
hends, and knows the other ; but where everything has
become to him his own self, how should he smell, see,
hear, address, understand, or know anyone at all ? How
should he know him, through whom he knows all this,
how should he know the knower?" On careful
consideration two thoughts will be found to be implied
here : ( 1 ) the supreme atman is unknowable, because
he is the all-comprehending unity, whereas all knowledge
presupposes a duality of subject and object; but (2) the

80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Individual at man also (" through whom he knows all
/this ") is unknowable, because in all knowledge he is the
knowing subject ("the knower"), consequently can never
be object. Essentially these two thoughts are one ; for
the individual atman is the supreme atman, and in pro
portion as we rise to this knowledge the illusion of the
object vanishes, and the knowing subject alone remains
without object ; and this subject, alike in its waking hours
and in dreams, fashions the objects outside of itself, — " for
he is the creator." The same thought is found in five
other passages in the speeches_pf Yajriavalkhya, and these

A we quote partly abridged j— \ Thou canst not see the seer
^ of seeing, thou canst not~near the hearer of hearing, thou

\ canst not comprehend the comprehender of comprehending,
* thou canst not know the knower of knowing.^] " In
truth, 0 Gargi, this imperishable one sees but is not seen,
hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not compre
hended, knows but is not known. Beside him there is no
seer, beside him there is no hearer, beside him there is
none that comprehends, beside him there is none that
knows."3 The same words recur almost unaltered in
Brih. 3. 7. 23 at the close of a paragraph, and on this
account the association of the thread of the universe with
the inner guide appears to be less primitive. In Brih. 4.
3. 23-31 it is said of the .deep sleeper: — "When then
he does not see, yet still he is seeing, although he sees
not ; since for the seer there is no interruption of seeing,
because he is imperishable ; but there is no second beside
him, no other distinct from him, for him to see." The
same is then repeated of smell, taste, speech, hearing,
thought, sensation, and knowledge. "For (only) where
there is as it were another is the other seen, smelt, tasted,
addressed, heard, conceived, felt, and known." And in
Brih. 4. 4. 2, of the dying it is said : — " Because he has

1 Brih. 4. 3. 10. 2 Brih. 3. 4. 2. 3 Brih. 3. 8. 11.

KNOWLEDGE IN RELATION TO BRAHMAN 81

become one, therefore he sees not as they say (in reality
he continues ever seeing), because he has become one,
therefore he does not smell, taste, address, hear, conceive,
feel, or know the other, as they say."

If we consider the originality, the close reasoning, and
(as we shall see later) the agreement of the thoughts in
the passages quoted with the other views of Yajnaval-
khya, we shall be led to regard as very probable the
dependence of all the passages that remain to be quoted,
and therefore of the entire further development of the
doctrine of the unknowableness of the atman, on the
thoughts, perhaps even on the text of the Brihadaranyaka.
The two passages from the Chandogya, which we have
now to cite, may be regarded as early examples: — " His
relations seat themselves around the dying man, and ask
him, ' Do you recognise me ; do you recognise me ? ' As
long as his speech has not yet entered into the manas, his
manas into the prana, his prana into the heat, the heat
into the supreme godhead, he recognises them. But
after that his speech has entered into the manas, his
manas into the prana, his prana into the heat, the heat
into the supreme godhead, then he no longer recognises
them." This passage, self-contained as it is, nevertheless
appears in its leading ideas to be dependent already on
the last-named passage of the Brih. 4. 4. 2, since the
reverse relation is not in any case admissible. In Chand.
6. 9 and 6. 10 also the doctrine of unconsciousness on
entrance into the Existent, set forth in the illustrations of
the bees and the rivers, seems to be indebted to the passage
first adduced from Brih. 2. 4. 12 :— " After death there is
no consciousness." And similarly the following words in
Brih. 2. 4. 14 are echoed in Chand. 7. 24. 1 :— " If a man
sees no other (beside himself), hears no other, knows no
other, that is the infinite (bhdman) ; if he sees, hears,

1 Chand. 6. 15. 1-2 ; cp. 6. 8. 6.
6

82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

knows another, that is the finite (alpam). The infinite
is the immortal, the finite is mortal." The suddenness
and disconnectedness with which this idea is introduced
seems to indicate dependence on the thoughts of Yajfia-
valkhya.

It is primarily due to the influence of this conception
that, later on, in opposition to the general tendency of
the Upanishads to seek after and to expound the knowledge
of the atman, the theory is more and more elaborated that
the atman (whose unknowableness, as we shall see subse
quently, had been already so strongly emphasised by Yajiia-
valkhya with his neti neti) is no true object of knowledge.
That knowledge of the atman, which sets it as an object
over-against itself, and which therefore is still infected with
duality, now appears as a lower standpoint, which must be
transcended in order to attain to complete oneness with
Brahman, with the atman.

This view is set forth for the first time clearly in the
magnificently elaborated description of the universe in
Taitt. 2. The author of this text begins with the incor
poration of the atman in the material world and the
human body, as the self dependent on nourishment.
From this as mere external covering he advances, pene
trating deeper and deeper into the kernel of the living
being as it here presents itself, to the self of life, of mind,
and finally of knowledge, i.e. the vijiianamaya atman.
This last, however, to which Brahman is an object of
knowledge, is also a mere outer covering of the self com
posed of bliss, which realises its oneness with Brahman.
At this point the question is propounded :—

Whether any ignorant man departing reaches yonder world?
Or whether perchance the wise departing wins the other world.?

Neither the one nor the other is in effect the answer
conveyed by the following words, which describe how

KNOWLEDGE IN RELATION TO BRAHMAN 83

Brahman in creating the universe enters into it as Being,
expressible, self-dependent, consciousness, reality, while it
in harmony with its own nature persists as the Opposite,
inexpressible, independent, unconsciousness, unreality.
Bliss consists in the sense of oneness with the latter :
— " For when a man finds his peace and resting-place in
that invisible, unreal, inexpressible, unfathomable, then has
he attained to peace.1 If, however, a man admits therein
an interval, a separation (or ' ever so small a separation '
between himself as subject and the atman as object),
then his unrest continues ; it is moreover the unrest of
one who imagines himself wise (while making Brahman
the object of knowledge)." For no language, no con7
ception, is adequate to express Brahman : —

Before whom words and thought recoil not finding him,

Who knows the bliss of this Brahman,

For him nothing excites terror any more. ^

If, however, Brahman cannot be reached by the way
of knowledge, how can union with him be accomplished ?
This is the question with which the following texts are
occupied. In Ke-na 3 a student propounds the question :—

That to which no eye penetrates,

Nor speech nor thought,

Which remains unknown, and we see it not,

How can instruction therein be given to us !

And the answer is suggested (Kena 3 and 11) :—

It is distinct from the intelligible,
And yet it is not therefore unknown ! —
Thus have we from our forefathers
Received in turn the instruction.

Only he who knows it not knows it,
Who knows it, he knows it not ;
Unknown is it by the wise,
But by the ignorant known.

1 abhayam gato bhavati, like Janaka, whom Yajnavalkhya exhorts, -
abhayam vai Janaka prapto 'si. Brih. 4. 2. 4.

84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Our knowledge is addressed to the external world, but
there is another way : —

Outwards the Creator pierced the holes,
Therefore men look outwards, not inwards ;
The wise man right within saw the atman,

his gaze on himself, seeking the eternal.1

"Fastened his gaze on himself" is literally "turning
round the eye" — dvrittac'akshus*

Here within us the reality of the atman becomes an
immediate certainty : 3—

Not by speech, not by thought,

Not by sight is he comprehended ;

" He is ! " by this word is he comprehended,

And in no other way.

" He is ! " thus may he be apprehended,
In so far as he is the essence of both ;
" He is ! " to the man who has thus apprehended him,
His essential nature becomes manifest.
v.

The polemic against knowledge grows in intensity.
Thus in a verse inserted later in Brih. 4. 4. 10 : —

iln dense darkness they move,
Who bow the knee to ignorance ;
In yet denser they
Who are satisfied with knowledge.

This verse is repeated and further amplified in Is a 9-11
(in dependence on Kena 3) : —

Other than that to which knowledge leadeth

Is that to which leadeth ignorance !

Thus have we received the teaching from our forefathers.

He who recognises both wisdom and ignorance (as insufficient),
He through both overpasses death and wins immortality.

With this is connected the demand for the suppression
of the perceptions of the senses which trick us with a

1 Rath. 4. 1. 2 cp. Jacob Bohme's "averted eye."

3 Kath. 6. 12, 13.

THE SEARCH FOR BRAHMAN 85

false knowledge. As early as Brih. 1. 5. 23 the injunction
is given : — " Therefore must one vow only be observed ;
suppressing the activities of the other organs of sense, a
man must inspire and exspire." Cliand. 8. 15 demands that
a man " reduce all his organs to inactivity in the atman."
Mundaka 3. 1.8 craves for jndnaprasdda, " cessation
of knowledge," and in 3. 2. 7 together with works repre
sents the vijndnamaya atman l also as becoming one with
the supreme eternal. And Maitr. 6. 19 directs that the
consciousness, together with the subtle body (lingam)
that sustains it, should be immersed in the unknown :—

That which abides in consciousness

Unknown, beyond conception, wrapped in mystery,

In that do thou immerse consciousness

And the lingam, bereft of its foundation.

All these requirements are part of the Yoga system, of
which we shall learn to know more later as a Praxis, by
which it is hoped to effect that metaphysical union with
the atman by artificial means.

II. THE SEARCH FOR BRAHMAN
1. The Atman (Brahman) as the Unity

As early as the times of the Bigveda a perception of
unity had been reached, to which expression was given
in hymns like Kigv. I. 164, X. 129. After this, however,
there remained the further task of defining more closely
the eternal unity which underlies all the phenomena of
nature. Of such inquiry the hymn Rigv. X. 121 is the
chief example, which, to the nine times repeated question,
" Who is the god to whom we are to offer sacrifice ? " in
the tenth verse gives the answer : " Prajdpati ! It is thou
and no other, who boldest in thy embrace all that has

1 Taitt. 2. 4.

86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

come to be." We have already traced in detail l how this
search was prosecuted through the period of the Brah-
manas, how Prajapati was gradually displaced by Brahman,
and how finally the most definite expression for the
object of man's search was found in the conception of
the atman. Atman is_the Indian expression for that
which we are accustomed to call " first -principle," and is
distinguished from the "latter only by its defining in a
clearer and more striking manner than any Western
equivalent the one eternal problem of all philosophical
research ; for it invites us to lay hold of the individual
self of man, the self of the universe, and to strip off from
man and from nature everything which does not approve
itself as this self, as the peculiar, most profound, and
ultimate essence of things. At the same time, the less
definite Brahman is often enough employed to express
the first principle. This is the case in the passages to be
discussed immediately, Brih. 2. 1. 1 (Kaush. 4. 1), Brih.
4. 1. 2-7, Cliiind. 5. 11. 1. Similarly S'vet. 1. 1 opens
with the question, — " What is the first beginning, what is
Brahman ?" —and according to Pras'na 1. 1 and in the
Arsheya Upanishad, wise men come together in order to
search for "Brahman."

The terms Brahman and atman both denote, there
fore, the first principle of the universe, and in this sense
are ordinarily employed in the Upanishads as synonymous,
and are interchanged with one another in the same text
or stand side by side, as in the question proposed in
Chand. 5. 11. 1 : — ko na dtmd, kim brahma? where
S'ankara remarks that Brahman denotes the term to be
defined, vis'eshyam, and atman that which defines it,
vis'eshanam, (which is true in general, if not precisely so
here), that by Brahman the limitation implied in atman
is removed, and by atman the conception of Brahman as a

1 Einleituny und Philosophic des Veda, p. 132 f.

DEFINITIONS OF BRAHMAN 87

divinity to be worshipped is condemned. Both expressions
however are, as this remark already shows, of indefinite con
notation. The conception of Brahman is very complex,
and the conception of the atman is a negative and relative
idea, which declares to us rather wherein the essence of
man and of the universe is not to be sought, than affords
us any positive information as to its real nature. Pre
cisely in this its philosophical value consists. For the
essence of things remains, as far as its nature is concerned,
eternally unknown ; and every attempt to make it an
object of knowledge compels us to impose upon it defini
tions which are borrowed from that sphere of experimental
knowledge that alone is accessible to our intelligence, and
these again do not penetrate to the essential reality of
things. From this realistic tendency the many false or
imperfect attempts to explain Brahman and the atman
arise, which are rejected by the teachers of the Upanishads
themselves, and which we have now to discuss.

2. Balakis Attempts at Explanation

According to a narrative preserved in a twofold
recension, in Brih. 2. 1 and Kaush. 4, the learned, famous,
and proud Brahman Balaki Gargya approached the king
Ajatas'atru with the offer : — " Allow me to explain to you
the Brahman." He then endeavours twelve times in suc
cession (in Kaush. sixteen times) to define the Brahman
as the soul (purusha) in the sun, moon, lightning, ether,
wind, fire, water, etc. ; and in each case the king confutes
his definition by pointing to the subordinate position
which the corresponding purusha occupies in the whole
of nature. The Brahman is silenced, and the king pro
ceeds to instruct him, using the illustration of a deep
sleeper. That in which his vital breaths (prdndh) lie
dormant, and from which they issue on his waking, and
with them all worlds, gods, and living creatures, is the

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

atman. This is the Brahman that Gfirgya undertook in
vain to explain. The reader's expectation of a more
precise account of the relation of Brahman to the purushas
of Gargya is not fulfilled in either recension. They both
are satisfied to show how on waking the pranas (speech,
eye, ear, manas) proceed from the atman, and as being
dependent on them all worlds, gods, and living creatures.

3. S'dkalyas Attempts at Explanation

In a similar way, in Brih. 3. 9. 10-17, 26, Vidagdha
S'akalya attempts to define Brahman as forming the
climax of all that the word atman denotes (sarvasya
dtmanah pardyanam). After, however, having eight
times in succession propounded a one-sided view that
represents the earth, love, forms, ether, etc., as its basis,
he is corrected by Yajnavalkhya, who points out to him
that that which he explains as the climax of all the
word atman denotes (sarvasya dtmanah pardyanam
yam dttha) is, on the contrary, only a subordinate purusha
that rules in the bodily forms, in love, the sun, sound, etc.
"He however," Yajnavalkhya proceeds in Brih. 3. 9. 26,
" who oversteps these purushas (is superior to them),
separating them one from another and turning them
back (i.e. inciting them to activity and recalling them),
this is the purusha of the Upanishad doctrine concerning
which I ask thee." S'akalya is unable to name it, and
for the error of having passed off a subordinate purusha
as sarvasya dtmanah pardyanam must atone by his
death.1

1 This is the meaning of the passage as I propose to assign the dialogue.
The traditional view, which is less satisfactory, represents Yujilavalkhya as
raising the question with regard to sarvasya dtmanak tpardyanamj and indicat
ing as its basis, earth, love, forms, ether, etc. ; and the error of S'akalya would
then consist in his naming in answer not the atman that Yajnavalkhya expects
in answer, but only a subordinate purusha that rule?' in the bodily forms, in
love, the sun, sound, etc.

DEFINITIONS OF BRAHMAN 89

4. Six Inadequate Definitions

Precisely as in Brih. 2. 1 twelve defective (ekapdd)
definitions of Brahman are criticised, in Kaush. 4 sixteen,
and in Brih. 3. 9. 10-17 eight, so in Brih. 4. 1 there are
six ; and here Janaka approaches Yajfiavalkhya after
having fortified his soul with mystic doctrines, upani-
shads, as the traveller provisions his ship or waggon.1
These " upanishads " consist in six definitions of Brahman
enunciated by other teachers, as speech, breath, eye, ear,
manas, and heart. All these definitions may still be
found in the extant texts, if not always exactly under
the names assigned. For instance, for vdg vai brahma
see Pafic'av. Br. 20. 14. 2, Chand. 7. 2. 2 ; for prdno vai
brahma, Brih. 1. 5. 23, 3. 7. 1-2, Chand. 4. 3. 3, 7. 15,
Taitt. 3. 3, Kaush. 2. 1, 2, 2. 13, Pras'na 2. 13 ; c'akshur
vai brahma, Chand. 1. 7. 4, 4. 15. 1, 8. 7. 4, Kaush.
4. 17, 18, Brih. 2. 3. 5, 5. 5. 4; s'rotram vai brahma,
Taitt. 3. 1, Kaush. 4. 14 ; mano vai brahma, Chand.

3. 18. 1, Ait. 3. 2; hridayam vai brahma, Chand. 3. 12.

4, 8. 3. 3, Brih. 5. 3; cp. also in general Chand. 3. 18,
where vac', prdna, c'akshuh, s'rotram form the four feet
of Brahman, and Chand. 4. 8. 3, where prdna, c'akshuh,
s'rotram, manas are one of his four feet. These and all
similar definitions, whether they are historical or only in
vented to give colour to historical tendencies, arise from the
endeavour to know that which is essentially unknowable ;
for which purpose no resource is open but to conceive it
with conscious or unconscious symbolism under the form
of some one of its phenomenal appearances. The criticism
to which Yajfiavalkhya subjects these six definitions of
Brahman as vac', prdna, c'akshus, s'rotram, manas, and
hridayam consists in explaining them 3^ mere " supports"
(dyatana), by means of which six corresponding attributes

1 Brih. 4. 2. 1.

90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

that are assumed to belong to the divine Being as prajnd,
priyam, satyam, ananta, dnanda, sthiti, manifest them
selves in the space which is common to all six as basis
(pratishtha). If, however, we seek to ascertain further
the nature of these six attributes, we are referred back
again to their six manifestations in space as vac', prdna,
c/akshus, s'rotram, manas, hridayam. And so, thrown
backwards and forwards between the phenomenal forms
of experience, and the empirical attributes of the divine
Being which find expression in them, we learn that
phenomena can only be explained by phenomena, and
that it is not in this way that we can arrive at a know
ledge of the nature of the Godhead. Yajfiavalkhya
accordingly himself adopts another way,1 and, starting
from the question what becomes of the soul after death,
first of all sketches a picture of the individual soul as
it dwells in the heart encompassed and nourished by the
veins, and extends its feelers, as it were, in the two eyes ;
then suddenly draws aside, like a veil that hides it, this
entire individual soul, so that before and around and in
us we see only the one omnipresent supreme soul. And
thus the question concerning the future existence of
the individual receives its answer in that it is deprived
of all justification, and tails to the ground meaningless.
Nor have we even to-day any better reply to give.

5. Definitions of the Atman Vais'vdnara
Owing to the ambiguity of the word the conception
of the atman, like that of Brahman, gives rise to several
misunderstandings. One of these was due to the fact
that beyond the cosmical meaning of the atman as first
principle of the universe there was discerned its
psychical meaning, the embodiment of this principle in
the self. It is thus with the five Brahmaus, who in

1 Bj-ih. 4. ±

DEFINITIONS OF THE ATMAN VAIS'VANARA 91

Chfind. 5. 11 meet and propound the question: — "What
is our atman, what is Brahman ? " They betake them
selves with this question to Uddalaka Aruni, who they
know is even now engaged in studying the Atman
Vais'vdnara, i.e. the atman as the all-pervading first
principle of the universe. Uddalaka mistrusts (rightly,
as his later answer proves) his ability to satisfy them,
and all six proceed according to king As'vapati Kaikeya
for instruction concerning the Atman Vais'vdnara. The
king first asks the six Brahmans in succession what it is
that they " worship " as the atman. He assumes, as this
expression shows, that the Brahmans who apply to him
for instruction are still entangled in the error of regarding
the atman as an object of worship existing outside of
themselves, like a new kind of divinity. This assumption
is confirmed, inasmuch as the six inquirers explain the
atman in succession as the heaven, the sun, the wind,
space, water, and the earth, therefore as something
objective. The king rejoins : — " You all, to judge from
your answers, conceive of this Atman Vais'vdnara as
though it were something separate from yourselves, and
thus you consume your food. He however who worships
this Atman Vais'vdnara thus (placing his outstretched
hand on his head from the forehead to the chin) as a span
long (prddes'amdtram abhivimdnam), he consumes the
food in all worlds, in all beings, in all selves. And of this
very Atman Vais'vdnara (measured on the head as a
span long) the bright (heaven) is the head, the all-
pervading (sun) is the eye, the (wind) on its lonely path
is the breath, manifold (space) is its trunk, its bodily
frame, riches (water) its bladder, the earth its feet." The
suggested movement of the hands, without which the
passage is unintelligible, may with certainty be inferred
from the original of our text in S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 1, where
they are actually made. In other respects also the

92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

original passage referred to possesses several advantages,
especially in its discussion not of the Atman Vais'vdnara,
but of a symbolical interpretation of Agni Vais'vdnara,
"the all-pervading fire," as a first principle of the
universe. In this light the defective answers of the six
interlocutors are far more intelligible than if they inquire,
in the first instance, as is the case in the secondary re
presentation of the Chandogya, concerning the atman as
"Brahman" (first principle). The question in this form
and the inquiry for the Atman Vais'vdnara would, strictly
speaking, exclude from the very beginning such erroneous
answers as were given by all six Brahmans.

G. Gradual Instruction of Ndrada
It is not always opponents or pupils who betray their
entanglement in incorrect or defective conceptions of
Brahman. We repeatedly meet with a Brahman inquirer
who, like Sanatkumara in Chand. 7 or Bhrigu in Taitt. 3,
makes his way through a succession of inadequate con
ceptions in order step by step to rise to an ever purer and
more refined knowledge of the Brahman or atman. The
most complete example of this kind is Chand. 7, where
Sauatkumara begins his instruction of Narada by declar
ing the whole of the experimental knowledge that he has
acquired to be mere name. Speech is greater than name,
manas greater than speech, and in this way the inquirer,
ever advancing, is led upwards from the conditioned to the
conditioning, from great to greater by successive stages,
in which Brahman is apprehended as ndman, vac', manas,
saiikalpa, c'ittam, dhydnam, vijndnam, balam, annam,
dpas, tejas.dkds'a, smara,ds'd up toprdna (the individual
soul) ; and from this last to Wutman, the absolutely " great,"
the " unlimited," beyond which there is nothing, that com
prehends all, fills all space, and yet is identical with the
self-consciousness (ahahkdra), with the soul (dtman) in

GRADUAL INSTRUCTION OF NARAD A 93

us. The greatness of this final thought impresses us as
in strange contrast to the laborious series of conceptions
by which we ascend to it. It was probably intended for
more patient readers than are to be found at the close
of the nineteenth century, and was evidently meant, by
passing from the visibly great to a still greater, to serve
the purpose of exciting expectation to the highest pitch.
Otherwise, in this transition from name to speech, from
this to the intellectual faculties (mind, judgement, thought,
intuition, knowledge), from these through the intermediary
of force to the four elements (food, water, heat, space),
and from these through memory and expectation to prana,
it is impossible, in spite of the rich poetic ornament with
which these ideas are set forth, to discern a satisfactory
reason for this progressive advance ; and the question is
perhaps justified, whether the author himself was entirely
in earnest, or whether these ideas from name right up to
prana were not all more or less intended to serve as mere
foil, in order to set in so much clearer light the absolute
unconditioned and unlimited nature of the atman, as
lying above and beyond all thought. It is on other grounds
remarkable that, in connection with all the members of the
series that precede prana, rich reward is promised to the
man who " worships as Brahman " name, speech, mind,
etc. The author therefore admits the possibility of
" worshipping as Brahman " all these things, and in the case
of many of them this may actually take place in a more
or less consciously symbolic manner. For ordinary men,
relying on their empirical consciousness as though on a
rope, prefer to worship rather than to know. To such an
end the absolute is naturally only with difficulty or not
at all adapted. The use of symbols therefore for its
expression is inevitable, and these in the hands of the
multitude very readily become idols. The manner also is
remarkable in which our author passes from prana, the

94 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

individual soul, for which the distinction of subject and
object still exists, to bMman, the supreme soul, for which
these like all distinctions have no meaning. We seek,
he says, the truth. This depends on knowledge, this
again on thought, this on faith, this on self-concentration,
this on productive power, this on pleasure (sukham,
more usually dnanda, the so-called bliss), which exists in
the unlimited, the bhuman. Gradually, therefore, from
the sphere of the intellectual in which differences obtain,
we are led upwards through an ever-increasing blending
of subject and object to a region in which all distinctions
are lost in the All-one.

7. Three Different Atmans

The atman is, as has often already been pointed out,
an idea capable of very different interpretations. The
word signifies no more than " the self," and the question
then arises what we regard as our self. Three positions
are here possible, according as by the atman is understood
(1) the corporeal self, the body; (2) the individual soul,
free from the body, which as knowing subject is contrasted
with and distinct from the object ; or (3) the supreme soul,
in which subject and object are no longer distinguished
from one another, or which, according to the Indian con
ception, is the objectless knowing subject. The narrative
in Chand. 8. 7-12 furnishes an illustration of these three
positions. " The self (atman), the sinless, free from old
age, from death, and from suffering, delivered from hunger
and thirst, whose wish is true, whose decree is true, that
ought we to seek, that endeavour to know." Impelled by
this craving, the god Indra and the demon Viroc'ana set
off, and betake themselves to Prajapati for instruction.
His first lesson is as follows : — The self is that which is
seen in looking into the eye of another, into a brook of
water or a mirror, which is reflected again in an image

THREE DIFFERENT ATMANS 95

complete even to hairs and nails, which decked with fair
clothing appears fair, in a word, the body ; " that is the
self, that is the immortal, the fearless, that is Brahman."
The answer satisfies both pupils, and they depart home
wards ; but Prajapati looking after them says : — " So they
depart, without having perceived or discovered the self."
Viroc'ana and the demons rest content with this answer,
and therefore all demon-like men, seeing the self in the
body, deck the human frame with all kinds of finery, as
though it were destined for a future life, a world beyond.
Indra, on the contrary, reflecting that this self is exposed
to all the sufferings and imperfections of the body, and
perishes at death, feels (what everyone may feel) that no
change which passes over us can affect us, and returns to
Prajapati. Prajapati now communicates to him the second
answer : — the self is that which roams about untrammelled
in dreams ; " that is the immortal, the fearless, that is
Brahman." But even with this answer Indra cannot
remain satisfied. The dream-self is not, it is true, affected
by the injuries which the body experiences from objects,
but yet it is virtually affected by them, seeing that it
proceeds to create an objective world over-against itself.
The third answer of Prajapati now follows: — "When a
man is so completely wrapped in slumber, has reached so
perfect a rest, that he does not perceive any dream-image,
—that is the self," thus he spake, "that is the immortal,
the fearless, that is Brahman." A further objection on
the part of Indra, that this amounts to entrance into a
state of annihilation, Prajapati removes by showing that
the cessation of the distinction of subject and object, as
this is attained in deep sleep, is rather an entrance into
the fullest light, a personal identification with the supreme
spirit, which as the knowing subject in us is unaffected by
any change of organs or objects. The meaning of this nar
rative is clear. In response to the question, What is the

96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

self? three answers are possible, according as we adopt the
idporat of materialism, realism, or idealism (1) The
material (demoniac) answer runs,— the self is the body
and perishes with it. The theologians of the Vedanta
understand even here the individual soul, and do violence
to the text by transforming the man who "is seen " in the
eye (mirroring himself) into one who "sees" in the eye
because otherwise Prajapati " would have been a deceiver "
since he says in fact even of this first self,-" that is the
immortal, etc. Prajapati, however, is here the represent
ative of nature, which never speaks falsely, and yet shows
in a certain sense double-faced, inasmuch as to the
two most important questions which we can put the
question concerning freedom and the question concerning
immortality, it gives to the ordinary empirical conscious"
two answers, which appear to be in contradiction with
one another If we regard our actions, we see that they
I necessarily proceed from their causes (character and
motive) in harmony with the law of causality; and yet
we bear within ourselves the invincible indestructible
consciousness of freedom and responsibility for these
actions. Similarly with the question of immortality If we
look without, we see our entire self entering into existence
. body and perishing ; and yet we are invincibly conscious
within of the eternity of our being: sentimus exveri-
murque nos aeternos esse, as Spinoza says. It is on this
consciousness, and not on personal longings, that all proofs
of the immortality of the soul depend. This consciousness
s which, clothed in empirical forms, (2) from Unrealistic
standpoint exhibits the self as the individual soul and to
this the second answer of Prajapati refers. Very beauti-
illustration of this consciousness of a soul free
from the body and yet real and individual, by means of
the dream-state, as being the only state of which we have
lence, in which the soul may be observed bound by

FIVE DIFFERENT ATMANS 97

corporeal conditions but not under the limitations of
individuality. This entire individual soul, however, is a
false conception arising from the fact that we transfer the
forms of our intellectual judgements, and especially the
most general of them, the necessary existence of an object
for a subject, into a region where they have no validity.
From this point consciousness leads on (3) tojh&.idealistic
standpoint, which recognises only the one supreme soul,
existing in everything, and embodied in each in its
entirety. In it there is no duality, no subject and object,
and consequently no consciousness in an empirical sense.
Thus far it may be compared to a deep dreamless sleep.
Later on we shall learn to recognise besides waking
slumber and deep sleep a fourth (turiya) state of the soul,
in which that unification, which ensues unconsciously in
deep sleep, is to be realised in a consciousness which is
perfect though not resting upon experience, or directed
towards objects external to itself.

8. Five different Atmans

As in the passage from the Chandogya discussed

above three atmans are distinguished, the corporeal

individual and supreme, so a paragraph in Taitt, 2, which

occupies a more advanced and developed position, assumes

five atmans (or purushas) by further division of the

intermediate individual atman into the principles of life,

of will, and of knowledge. Thus are constituted the

^at/mans annamaya, prdnamaya, manomaya, vijndna-

maya, and dnandamaya, which are manifested alike

in mankind and in nature as a whole. . The first four of

.these, like sheaths or husks (termed later kos'as), surround

-the fifth as the true kernel. Stripping off these sheaths

one by one, and gradually penetrating deeper, we finally

reach the inmost essential being of a man and of nature.

\/(l) The annamaya atman, "the self dependent on food,"

7

98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

is the incarnation of the atman in the human body and in
material nature ; the bodily organs are its constituent
parts. v/(2) Within this is contained the prdnamaya
atman, "the self dependent on the vital breath," the
atmau as the principle of natural life. Its constituent
parts are the vital breaths in man (inhalation, inter-
lialation, exhalation), but also in a cosmical sense the
whole of space is its body, the earth its foundation. By
stripping off this atman also as a sheath we reaches) the
manomaya atman, "the atman dependent on^manas"
(volition), whose constituent parts are stated to be the
four Vedas with the Brahmanas (ddes'a). According to
this definition we are to understand by it the principle of
the will (manas) embodied both in men and in gods, i.e.
of purpose directed to selfish ends. For it is this that on
the human side is expressed in the Vedic sacrificial ritual.

(4) Deeper still is found the mjndnamaya atman, "the
self dependent on knowledge," which, as the accompanying
verse declares, offers knowledge in place of sacrifice and
works, while recognising and worshipping the deity as a
separate and independent being. This position also we
must abandon like a sheath, in order finally to penetrate

(5) to the dnandamaya atman, "the self dependent on
bliss," as the innermost kernel of man and of nature as a
whole. This atman dependent on bliss, " before whom
words and thought recoil, not finding him," is no longer
an object of knowledge. It is, in contrast with the reality
of experience, that which lies beyond on the other side,
unutterable, unfathomable, an unconsciousness, a not-
reality. " For it is he who creates bliss. For when a
man finds resting-place and peace in that invisible,
unreal, unutterable, unfathomable one, then has he
attained to peace. When, however, a man assumes
therein an interval, a separation (between himself as
subject and the atman as object), then his unrest is

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF BRAHMAN 99

prolonged. Moreover, it is the unrest of one who
deems himself wise (while milking Brahman an object
of knowledge)."1

III. SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF BRAHMAN
1. Introduction and Classification

By a symbol (o-v^ftoXov) the ancient writers under
stood the visible sign of an invisible object or circumstance.
The word itself may be derived from the piecing together
(o-vpfid\\eiv) of a broken ring or the like carried by guests,
messengers, etc., as their authorisation, to the other half
that has been laid by, or simply from the mutual under
standing (avfifid\\ei,v) on which the recognition of this
visible token depended. An illustration lying very near
to hand for the conception of a symbol is furnished by
the words which language uses. These are to be regarded
collectively as the visible signs of the invisible ideas
which they represent, and therefore Aristotle pertinently
remarks : — TWV Se ovo^drcov e/caarov (rv/jL/3o\6v ecrriv : 2 and

J/ \ 1^ y 9 « • « « 5

edTL f.i€v ovv TO, ev rrj (ptovrj rcov ev rrj ^vyy rrau^fjiarwv
cvjj,p6\a, /col ra ypa^o/jueva r&v ev rfj (pcovfj.^ So also the
Church calls its sacraments and doctrinal formulae symbols.
They are the external tokens of adhesion to its fellowship.
The Indian word for_sjmbol, pratikam, depends upon
a similar conception. It denotes originally (from prati-
anc'} the side " turned towards " us, and therefore visible,
of an object in other respects invisible. In this sense the
teachers of the Vedanta often speak of symbols (prattMni)
of Brahman. They understand by the term definite
representations of Brahman under some form perceptible
by the senses, e.g. as name, speech, etc.,4 as manas and

1 Taitt. 2. 7. 2 De Sensu I. p. 437.

3 De Interp. I. p. 16. * Chand. 7.

ioo THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

dkds'a,1 as dditya? as the fire of digestion,8 or even as om,4
which for the purpose of worship are regarded as Brahman,
and are related to the latter as the images of the gods
(pratimd, arc'd) to the gods that they represent.6 As
early as Badarayana6 the distinction is drawn between
the worshippers of Brahman under such symbols and
the worshippers of Brahman " endowed with attributes "
(saguna). The latter possess a knowledge of Brahman,
and pass accordingly by the devaydna, which leads to
Brahman ; while the worshippers of the symbol are by
it hindered from discerning Brahman,7 and hence they
receive as fruit only the reward specified for each symbol.8
In the sequel this distinction is not consistently main
tained. The worship of Brahman by means of the syllable
om leads, according to Pras'na 5. 5, by the devaydna to
Brahman, and the worship of Brahman as prfina is usually
assigned to that branch of knowledge which concerns itself
with qualities, and only exceptionally 9 to the symbolical
worships, to which, nevertheless, it belongs according to
passages like Brih. 4. 1. 3 (prana by the side of vdc',
manas, etc.), 2. 3. 4 (with dkds'a), Chand. 3. 18. 4 (sub
ordinated to manas, by the side of vdc', etc. ).

Nevertheless the definite conception of the symbol is
wanting in the Upanishads, just as the word prattkam in
this sense is not there found. When, however, in the
extracts discussed in the preceding chapter10 certain
concrete representations of Brahman are rejected as
inadequate, though they are acknowledged to be

1 Chiind. 3. 18. 2 Chand. 3. 19.

3 Brih. 5. 9, Chand. 3. 13. 8. 4 Chand. 1. 1.

6 cp. S'ankara on Brahmasfttra, pp. 147. 14, 189. 8, 217. 10, 835. 9, 1059. G ;
on Chandogya, pp. 9. 8, 10. 1, 21. 3.

6 Sfttram 4. 3. 15-16, cp. 4. 1. 4.

7 P. 1135. 7, pratika-pradhdnatvdd updsanasya.
» E.g. Chand. 7. 1-14.

9 E.g. on Brahmastitra 4. 1, 5.
10 Brih. 4. 1; Chand. 5. 12-17, 7. 1-14.

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF BRAHMAN 101

meritorious, as is shown by the promise of a reward, we
are able, as is the case with so many doctrines of the later
Vedanta, to trace in passages like those quoted the earliest
rise of the conception of the symbol.

By symbol in a wider sense we understand all the
representations conceived with a view to the worship of
Brahman, himself incapable of representation, under some
one of his phenomenal forms ; and therefore especially as
prdna and vdyu, as okas' a, manas, and dditya, as the fire
of digestion and the syllable om. To the discussion of
these symbols in the present chapter must further be
added the symbolical interpretations of ritualistic con
ceptions, and finally the substitution for liturgical practices
of others which are related to the atman doctrine.

2. Brahman as Prdna and Vdyu

No natural phenomenon bears so ambiguous a
character, none appears to be derived so immediately
from the most intimate essence of things and so fully to
reveal it, as the phenomenon of life, manifested in the
activity of all the vital organs (prdnas), but above all in
the process of breathing (prdna) which determines the
life itself. Hence as early as the Brahmana period the
central significance of prdna (breath or life) was discussed
together with its superiority to the other prdnas (vital
forces, as the eye, ear, speech, manas), and its identity
with Vdyu, the god of the wind as the vital breath of
.the__ universe, was discussed. All these discussions are
continued in the Upanishads, especially in the older texts,
which yet are unable to apprehend the first principle of the
universe otherwise than in its most obvious phenomenal
forms ; until the prana, whether by a process of subordina
tion or identification, retires more and more behind the
atman, and appears only as an occasional synonym for it.

That the body of all (organic) beings can be sustained

102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

only as long as the prdna inhabits it, is taught in a
passage frequently misunderstood, Chand. 1. 11. 5 : —
sarvdni ha va imdni bhiUdni prdnam eva abhisamvis'anti,
prdnam aWiyujjihate. This does not mean, as S'ankara
and many with him explain it, that beings enter (at
death) into^mria, and are thence born anew, but rather
the contrary : — " All these creatures enter with the breath
(into the body), and with the breath they again depart
out." The best illustration is furnished by the metaphor
Pras'na 2. 4, which contains possibly a reminiscence of
our passage, and by Brahma Upanishad 1, which is
dependent upon it. The illustration is employed, it is
true, not of living beings, but of the individual organs
in their relation to the prdna. " Just as the bees all
follow the queen bee when she comes forth, and so long as
she tarries all tarry, so also speech, manas, eye, and ear."
The^jQmrmJs f-.hp. fniirLrninnfa.! axif] ^onstaiiLjpart of the
sixteen of which man consists. In Brih. 1. 5. 14 this
is illustrated in mythological language by the example
of Prajapati, who loses a sixteenth part each night with
the waning of the moon : — " And after that at new moon
he has entered with the sixteenth part into everything
which has breath, thereupon is he born on the following
morning (as the crescent of the new moon)." Here
Prajapati, after the loss of his fifteen changeable parts,
continues to exist at the new moon with his sixteenth
" unchangeable " (dhruva) part solely as prdna in all
living beings. From a physiological point of view this
thought is explained in Chand. 6. 7 ; man consists of
sixteen parts, of which after a fifteen days' fast only one,
the prfma, survives. An enumeration of these sixteen
parts is undertaken in Pras'na G. 3-4 : — " He (purusha)
reflected, < With the departure of what shall I myself
depart, and with the remaining of what shall I remain ? '
Accordingly he created the prana"; from which, as the

BRAHMAN AS PRANA AND VAYU 103

passage goes on to declare, the fifteen other parts

originate. Here, in harmony with the later date of the

composition, the prana is dependent on the purusha, i.e.

the atman, but is still at the same time its empirical

representative. As such, as the bhtiman brought within

the circle of experience (in the distinction of subject and

object), the prana makes its appearance already in the

beautiful description of Chand. 7. 15: — "As the spokes

are inserted into the nave of the wheel, so everything is

inserted into this life (prana). The life advances by the

life (the breath), the life (breath) gives the life, it becomes

the life. The life is father and mother, the life is brother

and sister, the life is teacher and Brahman. Therefore

if a father or mother or brother or sister or teacher or

Brahman is used roughly, men say of you, Fie, you are

a parricide, a matricide, a murderer of brother or sister,

of teacher or Brahman. Should he, however, strike even

these with a spear, after the life has departed (on the

funeral pyre) and they are burnt to the last hair, then it is

not said, ' You are a parricide, a matricide, a murderer

of brother or sister, of teacher or Brahman ' ; for the life

only is all this." The comparison that occurs here of the

prana to the nave of a wheel, in which all the spokes

meet, is found again : (1) of the prana, in Pras'mi 2. G, in

the hymn to the prana here inserted, though derived from

an earlier period, and which recalls not only Vaj. Samli.

34. 5, but also in many ways Atharvav. 11. 4; (2) of

the prana, which is already identified in the second

place with Prajnatman in Kaush. 3. 8 (for which is

substituted, in Kaush. 4. 20, the figure of the chieftain

and his people); (3) of the atman, in Brili. 2. 5. 15, cp.

1. 5. 15 Mund. 2. 2. 6 Pras'na 6. 6, and interpreted in

S'vet. 1. 4, in terms of Sankhyan thought.

The superiority of the prana to the other vital
organs (eye, ear, speech, manas, etc.) is illustrated by the

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

parable of the rivalry of the organs, which forms a favourite
theme of the Upanishads. In order to test which of them
is the most essential, the pranas (eye, ear, speech, etc.)
one after another leave the body, which nevertheless still
continues to exist; but when the prana proposes to
depart, they become conscious that none of them can
exist without it. This narrative, known by the name
of prdnasamvdda, is found in Chand. 5. 1. 6-12, Brih. 6.
1. 7-13, Kaush. 2. 14, cp. 3. 3, Ait. Ar. 2. 1. 4, Pras'na
The most original form is preserved unquestion
ably in Chanel. 5. 1. 6-12. The vital organs (only speech,
eye, ear, and manas are mentioned besides prana) come to
Prajapati, contending for precedence. His decision is
given :- ' That one amongst you, after whose departure
the body finds itself in the worst condition, has the
precedence among you." Thereupon in succession speech,
eye, ear, and manas depart, without the body on that
account ceasing to exist. " Thereupon the prana proposed
to go forth ; but as a noble steed (if he breaks'loose) tears
away the foot-ropes that hold fast his feet, so he tore
away with him the other vital breaths. Then they all
came to him and said :— < Worthy sir, tliou art he ; thou
hast the precedence over us, only go not forth.'" Brih. 6
1. 7-13 relates the story almost in the same words, but
with the substitution of Brahman for Prajapati, the
addition of a sixth organ, and the further elaboration of
the illustration of the steed. All these variations are in
favour of the originality of the version of the Chandogya.
Kaush. 3. 3 supplies only an argument which assumes
the narrative in the form indicated. Kaush. 2. 14
represents all the organs as going forth together, but
returning separately; on the return of the pr^na the
body revives. Here the motive for the united departure

• A further recension, according to Weber's statement, occurs in Kaush
Ar. 0. On Brih. 1. 5. 21, cp. also infra.

BRAHMAN AS PllANA AND VAYU 105

is wanting. Ait. Ar. 2. 1. 4 twice brings to a settlement
the question which of the pranas is uktham, by the
collapse of the body on the departure of the prana, and
again by its revival when the prana returns. In this
case an inferior impression is created both by the
doubling of the proof of superiority, and by the applica
tion of the story to the glorification of the uktham.
Pras'na 2. 2-4 represents the prana indignant at the
behaviour of the others preparing forthwith to depart,
whereupon speech, manas, eye, and ear are carried away
with it, and beg the prana to remain. This is clearly an
abbreviated form of the original narrative ; what is new
is only the substitution of the illustration of the queen
bee for that of the steed. These relations are of interest,
since they supply a foundation for the chronology of the
corresponding texts.

Connected with this narrative of the dispute of the
organs for precedence is another of the strife of the gods,
i.e. the organs, against the demons. We limit ourselves
to a comparison of the two chief recensions, Brill. 1. 3
and Chanel. 1. 2.1 Of these two, Brih. 1. 3 is unquestion
ably the more original. In order to vanquish the demons
the gods, i.e. the organs, speech, smell, eye, ear, manas, and
prana, instruct one of their number to sing the udgitha.
Speech essays the task, but while singing is overcome
with evil by the demons. A similar fate overtakes in
succession smell, eye, ear, and manas. Finally prana
undertakes it, and the assailing demons are scattered
before him like a clod of earth when it falls on a stone.
Thereupon prana leads the others away beyond the reach
of evil and death, whereby speech goes to Agni, smell to
Vayu, the eye to Aditya, the ear to the heavenly regions,
the manas to the moon. All these deities then, in order

1 Other discussions of the same theme will be found in Talav. Up. Br. 1.
60, 2. 1-2, 2. 3, 2. 10-11.

1 06 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

to enjoy food, enter again as speech, smell, eye, ear, and

mauas into the prana. The same idea is found in Ait.

1-2, adapted to the conception of the purusha as the

primeval man. To these legends Brill. 1. 3. 19 attaches

a glorification of the prana as Ay&sya Ahgirasa, as

Brihaspati and Brahmanaspati, as Sdman and even as

Udgttha. Previously he sang the udgttha, now he is

the udgttha. It is quite clear that we have here an

amalgamation of two texts originating from different

points of view. We now understand the strange version

of our story in Chfmd. 1. 2, where the gods in their

strife against the demons approach the individual organs,

not for the purpose of securing that the udgttha shall be

sung by them, but in order to worship them as udgttha.

The author of this section found the story of the strife

followed already (just as is the case still in the Brihad.) by

a worship of the prana as udgttha. Both pieces, though

radically different, and only by accident standing side by

side, were blended into one whole, whereby the narrative

entirely lost its original character.1

The last-quoted legend suggests already that the
prana is not merely a psychical but also a cosmical
principle, that it is not only the breath of life in
men, but also the universal breath of life which prevails
throughout the whole of nature. This transition is very
natural. Among the most diverse peoples, from the
purusha of the hymn Rigv. X. 90 to the giant Ymir of
the Edda, we meet with the tendency to regard man
kind as a microcosm, and vice versa the universe as a
makranthropos. This thought depends, in the first
instance, upon the fact that that which is manifested in
nature as a whole, with all its phenomena, finds its most
definite and complete expression in man. But in detail
also the human organism enters into manifold relations

1 See further, Deussen, Upan., p. GG if.

BRAHMAN AS FRANA AND VAYU 107

with the external world. By means of its various organs
and functions it extends itself, as it were, over-against
the surrounding phenomena of nature, and accommodates
itself to them. The organs of nutrition correspond to
the constitution of food, the breathing organs to the
atmosphere ; thejstructure of the feet corresponds to the
earth, upon which they will have to move ; and in the
curvature of the head the vaulting of the heaven seems
to be reproduced.1

It is perhaps due to considerations of this nature that
as early as the hymn of the purusha,2 describing the
transformation of the primeval man into the universe, his
head becomes the heaven, his navel the atmosphere, his feet
the earth, his eye the sun, his manas the moon, his mouth
Indra and Agni (fire), his ears the heavenly regions, and
his prana the wind. In general, precisely as we were led
to recognise in prana the central organ of life, as ex
plained above, so that which corresponds to it in the
universe, the wind, must become the vital principle of
nature, whether we regard it merely as the prana that
pervades the whole universe, as in the hymns elsewhere
quoted,3 or contrast vdyu and prana as cosmical and
psychical analogies, as is the case in the following
passages.

In Brih. 1. 5. 21-23 the narrative of the rivalry of
the organs appears in a new form, in so far as side by side
with the psychical organs, speech, eye, ear, and prana,
their cosmical equivalents also, fire, sun, moon, and vayu,
come forward in mutual rivalry. Since these last cannot
be said to depart from the body, this feature of the
narrative is necessarily omitted, and there is substituted
for it in the case of the psychical organs exhaustion, in
the case of the cosmical a temporary entrance into repose.

*cp. Plat. Tim. 44 D. 2 Rigv. X. 90. 13-14.

3 Atliarvav. 11. 4 and Pras'na 2. 5-13 ; cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 562.

1 08 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Only prana and vayu do not become exhausted ; accord
ingly the others take refuge in them, and at the close
it is said that the sun rises and sets in the (cosmical)
prana. A similar conception lies at the foundation of the
magnifying of the wind in Brih. 3. 3. 2 : — " The wind
therefore is the particular (uyaditi), and the universal
(samashti)" In another version of the same narrative,
Brih. 3. 7, the wind (cosmical and psychical) is celebrated
as thethread of the universe (sittram) which holds together
all beings:— "By the wind as thread, 0 Gautama, this world
and the other world and all creatures are bound together.
For this very reason, O Gautama, it is said of a dead man,
' his limbs have been relaxed ' ; for by the wind as thread,
0 Gautama, were they bound together."1 Just as the
prana binds things together from without, so, as is ex
plained in the following words of Brih. 3. 7. 3-23, the
Antarydmin (inner guide), i.e. the dtman, rules them from
within. The connecting together prana and antaryamin
is part of the attempt, thus early made, to advance from
the symbolical method to that of abstract conception, of
which more will later be said.

Since it has been already shown in Ait. Br. 8. 28 in the
brahmanah parimarah, the "dying (of the foes) around
the magic spell (uttered by the king)," how the natural
phenomena, lightning, rain, sun, moon, and fire, become
extinct in the wind and emerge from it again, Kaush. 2.
12-13 proceeds to teach the daivah parimarah, the
"dying of the gods around (the prana)." The cosmical
divinities (fire, sun, moon, lightning), and the correspond
ing psychical divinities (speech, eye, ear, manas) do not
die, when their brahman (here, their phenomenal form)
vanishes ; their brightness only they deliver over to other
gods, while they themselves with their prana enter, the
cosmical into vayu, the psychical into prana, which in

1 Bi-ih. 3. 7. 2.

BRAHMAN AS PRANA AND VAYU 109

essence are one : — " All these divinities therefore enter
into the prana, and die in the prana ; they are not, how
ever, lost when they enter in, but arise again from him."
Here vdyu-prdna appears as the true first principle of
the universe, while the " brahman " is to be interpreted as
only its manifestation in natural phenomena, and there
fore is apparently subordinated to the prana.

The entrance of all the gods of nature into vayu, and
of all the gods of the senses into the prana which is
identical with it, is also the theme of a discussion which
is frequently met with, but occurs in its best and probably
most original form in S'atap. Br. X. 3. 3. 5-8. There in
quiry is made for " the fire, which is this universe," and
the answer is given, — " In truth, the prana (breath, life)
is this fire. For when a man sleeps, his speech enters
into the prana, the eye enters into the prana, the manas
enters into the prana, the ear enters into the prana ; and
when he awakes, from the prana are they reborn. Thus
far in relation to the self. Next in relation to the gods.
In truth, Agni is that which this speech is here, yonder
Aditya is this eye, yonder moon this manas, and the
heavenly regions this ear. But yonder vayu (wind),
which purifies there as it blows, is this prana (breath).
When now the fire (agni) is extinguished, it is blown out
in the wind ; therefore we say, it has been blown out, for
it is blown out in the wind. And when the sun (aditya)
sets, it enters into the wind ; and similarly the moon and
the heavenly regions are dependent on the wind ; and
from the wind they are reborn. He therefore who
departs from this world knowing this enters with his
speech into the fire, with his eye into the sun, with his
manas into the moon, with his ear into the heavenly
regions, with his prana into vayu ; for from them he has
arisen, and from these divinities, whom he ever loves,
united to them he finds rest." This speculation was later

no THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

on associated with the legend of S'aunaka and Abhipratarin,
who during a meal were importuned by a brahmac'drin,
who proposed to them a riddle on this subject. In
this form, which is apparently no longer preserved, the
narrative became again the groundwork of Talav. Up. Br.
3. 1-2, where the text is further elaborated and ex
pounded, and also of Chand. 4. 2-3, which seems to be
more faithful to the original form. The whole discussion,
however, together with the legend, is comprised within
a second legend, while (quite incongruously) both the
discussion and the story of the beggar student are put
into the mouth of Raikva as he gives instruction to
Janas'ruti.1

Conceptions such as those referred to account for the
fact that in the Upanishads we frequently meet with the
explanation that Brahman, whose nature it is sought to
ascertain, is the prana, the breath of life that pervades
both the universe and the human body. This is the case
in the definition of Brih. 4. 1. 3, judged by Yajnavalkhya
to l)e inadequate, prdno vai brahma ; or Brih. 5. 13, where
ul'tham, yajus, sdman, and kshatram (i.e. probably the
four Vedas, as the sum of all that was originally denoted
by brahman) are explained as the prana. We shall meet
later on with other passages of this character, in which
the prana is recognised as a first principle, but imme
diately set aside, as for instance Chand. 4. 10. 5, prdno
brahma, kam brahma, kham brahma ; and we propose
to cite here two more passages only, Kaush. 2. 1 and 2. 2,
in which a beginning seems to be made towards such a
superseding of prana, Both passages, the one on the
authority of the Kaushitaki, the other on that of the
Paingya, explain the prana as brahman. Both draw
thence the inference that he who knows himself as the
prana that fills all things does not need to beg for food

*cp. Deussen, Upan., pp. 117-120.

OTHER SYMBOLS OF BRAHMAN m

(najjdc'et is his " upanishad "), since he enjoys nourish-
ment in all beings. According to the first passage, speech,
eye, ear, and manas are the servants of prana ; according
to the second, they encompass it, speech around the eye,
this again around the ear, this around the marias, and this
around the prana. But of the last also it is said, He is
set around (drundhate). Around what is not stated.
But in this may be found the first intimation of the great
truth formulated in Taitt. 2. 2, that the prdnamaya
dtman also is not the kernel, but only the innermost
sheath.

3. Other Symbols of Brahman

The two most important types besides the prana
under which Brahman is to be worshipped appear to be
manas and dkds'a. The principal relevant passage is
Chandogya 3. 18: — "The manas is to be worshipped as
Brahman ; thus far in relation to the self. Next in
relation to the godhead ; the akas'a (ether, space) is (to be
worshipped) as Brahman. Thereby both are taught, that
in relation to the self, and this in relation to the godhead."
It is further expounded how Brahman as manas has as his
four feet the cosmical organs, speech, breath, eye, ear, and
similarly as akas'a the cosmical gods, fire, wind, sun, and
the heavenly regions. A passing attempt to elevate the
manas (the will) into a universal principle has been else-
wKeie cited.1 Unfortunately the attempt is not carried any
further, but the manas is allowed to remain a mere symbol
of Brahman. Besides our passage, Chand. 7. 3 may be
quoted, where the manas occurs as the third of the
symbols there enumerated, beyond which there is a still
higher ; and Brih. 4. 1. 6, where the upanishad mano vai
brahma is attributed to Satyakama (inconsistently with

1 Einleitung und Philosophic des Veda, p. 206 ; for an estimate of this
conception we refer to the discussion there.

1 1 2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the instruction given to him in Chand. 4. 9. 3), and is
regarded as inadequate. By the side of the manas the
passage quoted above names the akas'a (ether, space;
strictly speaking, space conceived as a material element)
as a symbol of Brahman (for an alternative and parallel
explanation of it as Brahman can only be intended
to be understood symbolically), no doubt on account
of the omnipresence of space; just as a passage
often quoted by S'ankara but not yet identified says of
Brahman that he is dkds'avat sarvagatac' c'a nityali
" omnipresent like space, eternal," and Newton designated
space the sensorium of God, while Kant a century later
showed the god, whose sensorium space is, to be the
intellect (manas) in our inner self. In older texts of
the Upanishads, dkds'a (space) is frequently explained to
be Brahman, without any clear consciousness that this

representation is merely symbolical. Chanel. 1. 9. 1 :

" It is the akas'a, out of which all these creatures proceed,
and into which they are again received, the akas'a is
older than they all, the akas'a is the ultimate end."
Badarayana is right in asserting 1 that by the akas'a here
Brahman is to be understood, " because his characteristics "
are found. So also in Brih. 5. 1. 1, in an appendix contain
ing much that is old : — " Om ! the firmament is Brahman,
the primeval, air-filled firmament." And again probably
in Chand. 3. 12. 7-9 :—" This so-called Brahman is the
same as yonder space without man ; and yonder space
without man is the same as this space within man ; and
this space within man is the same as this space within
the heart. That is the perfect, the immutable." It was
soon, however, felt that the representation of Brahman as
akas'a could only be tolerated in a symbolical sense.
Gargya, in Brih. 2. 1. 5,2 explains the spirit in space as
Brahman, and the answer is given (obviously directed

r. 1. 1. 22, dkds'as tal-lingdt. 2 cp. Kaush. 4. 8.

OTHER SYMBOLS OF BRAHMAN 113

against the passage from Chand. 3. 12. 9 just cited), that
it is only " the full, the immutable." In Chand. 4. 10. 5
kham (space) is playfully identified with kam ( = dnanda,
bliss). In Chand. 3. 18. 1, akas'a is, as we saw, only in
a symbolical sense together with man as admitted as
Brahman as an object of worship. Thus in Chand. 7. 12
the akas'a appears as a mere symbol, beyond which there
is a greater; and in Chand. 8. 1. 1, characteristically
diverging from the above quoted passage Chand. 3. 12.
7-9, it is no longer a question of regarding space in the
universe as Brahman, or space in the heart, but that which
is within this space (tasmin yad antar). We are unable
therefore to agree with Badarayana when, in the student's
benediction Chand. 8. 14, he proposes to understand Brah
man by the akas'a. The meaning rather is, perhaps in
tentionally, directed against such an interpretation : — The
akas'a is that (only) which holds asunder name and form ;
that which is in these two (te yad antar a), that is Brahman,
that is the immortal, that is the fitman. That is to say,
Brahman has been expanded into names and forms,
according to Chand. 6. 3. 3. The most decided polemic
however against a confusion of akas'a and Brahman is in
Brih. 3. 7. 12: — "He who, dwelling in the akas'a, is
^distinct from akas'a, whom the akas'a knows not, whose
body the akas'a is, who rules the akas'a from within, he is
thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal."1

As early as the period preceding the Upanishads we
were able to discern a series of attempts to regard the first
principle of the universe as inherent in the sun, but at
the same time by means of metaphorical interpretations to
advance beyond this conception as being merely symbolical.
These attempts were continued in the Upanishads. In
Kaush. 2. 7 a ceremony is taught, which by means of a worship
of the rising mid- day and setting sun delivers from all sin

1 cp. also Brih. 3. 8. 11, 4. 4. 17, 20.
8

H4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

committed by day or by night. Chand. 3. 19. 1 enjoins in
addition the worship of the sun as Brahman ; and that this
representation is merely symbolic appears from what follows,
where the sun is regarded not as the original creative
principle, but, falling back upon representations discussed
elsewhere,1 as the first-born of creation. With the attempts
to which reference is there made to interpret these views
of Brahman as the sun, and to see in the natural light
a symbol merely of the spiritual light, is to be classed
especially the paragraph Chand. 3. 1-11, which undertakes
on a larger scale to depict Brahman as the sun of the uni
verse, and the natural sun as the phenomenal form of this
Brahman. It may be regarded as a further endeavour to
penetrate beyond the symbol to the substance when, in
a series of passages, it is no longer the sun, but the
purusha (man, spirit) in the sun, and the corresponding
purusha in the eye that is described as Brahman. In
Chand. 1. G-7 it is said in an adaptation of the Udgitha
(which the Udgatar had to sing) ; as the Udgitha is lord
over ric' and sdman, so over the cosmical gods is lord
" the golden man (purusha), who is seen within the sun
with golden beard and golden hair, altogether of gold to
the finger-tips"; and over the psychical gods " the man
who is seen within the eye." The former is lord over the
worlds which lie beyond the sun, and over the desires of
the gods ; the latter over the worlds which lie on this
side of the eye (therefore within man), and over the desires
of men. According to Mahanar. 13, the ric', saman, and
yajus (and therefore the Brahman embodied in the Veda)
are compared to the orb of the sun, its flame, and the
purusha in this flame, — " as this triple knowledge does
he gleam, who as golden purusha is therein in the sun " ;
while the identity of this purusha with that in men has
been already asserted in Taitt. 2. 8 : 2 — " He who dwells

1 Alljeineine Geschichte, I, 1. pp. 253, 251. 2 cp. also Taitt. 3. 10.

OTHER SYMBOLS OF BRAHMAN 115

here in men and that one yonder in the sun are the same."
This thought is further developed in Brih. 5. 5, where
among other things it is said : — " Yonder man who is
in the orb of the sun, and this man who is in the right
eye, these two depend on one another. The former
depends by its rays on the latter, and this by the breath
of life on the former. This one, when he determines
to go forth, gazes at that orb of the sun pure (from rays) ;
those rays do not interfere with him." Accordingly
in Brih. 5. 15 l the dying man entreats the sun: —
"Disperse thy rays, concentrate thy splendour; yea, I
see thee, thou lovely form ; and he there, that man there,
I am he himself." A similar conception underlies the
explanation of themselves given in Chand. 4. 11-13 by
the three sacrificial fires in their instruction of Upakosala
as the man in the sun, the moon, and the lightning ;
whereupon the teacher in a subsequent correction
remarks : — " They have told you only its environment,
but I will tell you its real nature . . . the man who is
seen in the eye, he is the atman — thus he spake, — he is the
immortal, the fearless, he is Brahman." Sun, moon, and
lightning are, as he further shows, only the uppermost
stations of the way of the gods, by which " the man who
is not as a man " (purusho 'mdnavah) guides the soul to
eternal union with Brahman. These views are apparently
criticised in Kausli. 4,2 when Gargya among his sixteen
definitions of Brahman proposes the man in the sun, the
moon, the lightning, and the right eye, and is therefore
turned away by Ajatas'atru.

Prdna, manas, dkds'a, and dditya are the most
important symbols under which the worship of Brahman
is enjoined. Theoretically, indeed, all the objects of wor
ship recognised and enumerated in Chand. 7. 1-15, viz.—
ndman, vdc't manas, sahkalpa, c'ittam, dhydnam, vijnd-

1 cp. also Is'a 16. 2 cp. Brih. 2. 1.

n6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

nam, balam, annam.dpas, tejas, dkds'a,smarat ds'd,prdna
are to be regarded as such ; and the modes of representa
tion of Brahman as vac', prdna, c'akslms, s'rotram, manas,
hridayam, which in Brill. 4. 1 are treated as imperfect
and yet are not rejected, stand in a similar position, and
so also annam, prdna, c'akshus, s'rotram, manas in Taitt.
3. 1. The warmth of the body and the buzzing in the
ear do duty also as symbols of Brahman on the ground of
Chand. 3. 13. 7-8, where it is said of the light which is
above the heaven and at the same time within men, i.e.
of Brahman : — " His sight is that here in the body when
he is touched a warmth is felt ; his hearing is that when
the ears are kept closed there is heard, as it were, a hum
ming like a crackling as of a roaring fire. This ought we
to worship as his sight and his hearing." Just as the
section from which this passage is taken stands in a
peculiar, still unexplained relation to the doctrine of the
dtman vais'vdnara and the prdndgnihotram connected
with it,1 so the parallel doctrine of the acjni vais'vdnara2'
is attached to a cognate expression in Brih. 5. 9, which
traces back the buzzing in the ear and the fire of digestion
to the vais'vdnara fire in men (just as in Chand. 3. 13. 7-8
the humming in the ear and the bodily warmth is traced to
the Brahman fire in men). Both amount essentially to the
same thing, since, according to the doctrine of the prdnd-
gnihotra (which will have to be further considered later
on), digestion is a consumption of the sacrificial food by
the fire of prana ; and this we have already learnt to
recognise as a symbol of Brahman.

Among the symbols by which the suprasensible
Brahman is represented to sentient perception is finally
to be reckoned the sacred syllable om, which of all the
symbols came to be the most important and fruitful. It
was closely connected with the yoga practice, one of the

1 Chand. 5. 11-24. 2 S'atap. Br. 10. G. 1.

INTERPRETATION OF SYMBOLS 117

most peculiar phenomena of Indian religious life, which
later on will claim consecutive treatment.

4. Attempts to interpret the Symbolical Representations

of Brahman

It is a weighty saying, that we must not put new
wine into old wine-skins. But this requirement (like so
many other of the requirements of Jesus) is on too lofty
a plane, too unpractical, takes too little account of human
relations and weaknesses, to be capable of more than
approximate fulfilment. For it lies in the nature of
things, that advance in the religious sphere can never be
simple and absolute, but rather that by the side of the
newer and better that which is old and dead must ever be
still preserved, because it is regarded as something sacred.
We shall see later how entirely Christianity was compelled
to put its new wine into the old skins. Philosophy pur
sues a somewhat more untrammelled course. External
liberty, however, is still not internal ; and even in the course
of development of the newer philosophy from Cartesius to
Kant and onwards (to the greatest of all the battles for
freedom that mankind has ever waged), we are only too
often reminded of Goethe's grasshopper " that ever flits,
and flitting leaps, and still in the grass sings its old

song."

It was exactly the same in India. Those symbolical
representations of Brahman as prana, akas'a, etc. were too
deeply rooted in the consciousness for it to be possible to
throw them overboard without further trouble. There
followed a series of attempts to preserve the symbols,
while combining with them a truer conception of Brah
man. The section Kaush. 3-4 is especially typical of
this method of procedure. The important fact, taught
principally byjfajnavalkhya, and perhaps first grasped by
him, that^ Brahman, the atman, must be sought above all

n8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in the knowing subject, i.e. in the consciousness (prajild),
haxPfound a place alike in the schools of the Samaveda,1
and in those of the Eigveda ; although the latter, to judge
from Ait. Ar. 2. 1-2, adhered especially closely to the
symbolic representation of Brahman as prana. While,
however, <amongst the Aitareyins the new knowledge of
Brahman as prajna (consciousness) is attached immedi
ately to this representation,2 the Kaush. Up. endeavours
to effect a reconciliation of the two by means of the
equation, prana = prajna. Kaush. 3 shows in a better way
how the objects of sense are dependent on the organs of
sense, and the latter in turn on the consciousness (prajnd,
prajndtman). But like a false note there runs through the
whole the assertion put forward again and again : — " What
however the prana is, that is the prajna, and what the
prajna is, that is the prana." The sole reason advanced
for this bold identification is, — "for both dwell united in
the body, and unitedly depart out of it."3 A similar
attempt to identify the prana and the dkds'a, and both
with dnanda, " bliss," which forms the essence of Brah
man, is found in Chanel. 4. 10. 5: — ''Brahman is life
(prana], Brahman is joy (kam = dnanda), Brahman is
the expanse (kham = dkds'a) ; to which the fires that
impart this instruction add in explanation : — " In truth,
the expanse, that is the joy, and the joy, that is the
expanse " ; and they expound to him how that Brahman
is life and the broad expanse. A still more compre
hensive blending of symbols with reality is undertaken
by the very complex paragraph, Brih. 2. 3. Here " two
forms " of Brahman are distinguished, the material (mortal,
abiding, existing), and the immaterial (immortal, departing,
other-worldly). (1) The material Biahman is physical
nature and the human body ; the sun and the eye are its

i Chanel. 8. 12. 4, Kena 1-8. a Ait. Up. 3 = Ait. Ar. 2. 6.

* Kauhh. 3. 4.

INTERPRETATION OF SYMBOLS 119

essence. (2) JThe immaterial Brahman is vayu and akas'a,
prana and the void in man ; the purusha in the sun and
the eye is its essence. Thus far therefore we are dealing
with the symbolical. But this is abruptly transcended
when the purusha is further identified by means of the
famous formula of Yajiiavalkhya neti neti and the upani-
shad satyasya satyam borrowed from Brih. 2. 1. 20 with
the unknowable super-essential Brahman. A similar blend
ing virtually takes place in Brih. 3. 7, when vayu-prana as
the world-thread (sutram] and the atman as the inner guide
(antarydmin] are discussed in the same context, and are
therefore probably identified. The prayer of the student
also in Taitt. 1. 1 1 is remarkable, because a perfectly clear
consciousness of the symbolical representation of Brahman
by vayu is therein expressed : — " Keverence to Brahman !
Reverence to thee, Vayu ! for thou art the visible Brahman,
thee will I recognise as the visible Brahman." In later
texts prana has become occasionally a synonym for atman,
as in Kath. 6. 2 ; or is made dependent on the latter, as
in Pras'na 3. 3, where the prana (perhaps following Eigv.
X. 121. 2, Kath. 3. 1, and anticipating the " reflection "
between souls and objects in the Sankhya philosophy) is
described as the copy or shadow (c'haya) of the atman. It
was reserved for the reactionary spirit of the Maitr. Up. 6.
1-8 to rehabilitate prana and aditya, and to enlarge upon
their identity as well as the manner of their worship in
tedious speculations.

5. Appendix : Interpretations of and Substitutes
for Ritual Practices

The partial interpretation in the oldest parts of the
Upanishads of certain ritual conceptions and practices
which are deeply rooted in consciousness in the light of
the doctrine of Brahman, and the partial substitution for

1 cp. also I. 12.

120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

them of new ceremonies more in harmony with the spirit
of the new doctrine, is related to the symbolical view of
Brahman. We propose briefly to indicate the leading
characteristics on both sides.

That India more than any other country is the land
of symbols is owing to the nature of Indian thought
which applied itself to the most abstruse problems before
it was even remotely in a position to treat them intelli-
As early as the period of the Brahmanas the
separate acts of the ritual were frequently regarded as
symbols, whose allegorical meaning embraced a wider
But the Aranyakas were the peculiar arena of
these allegorical expositions. In harmony with their
prevailing purpose, to offer to the Vanaprastha an equi
valent for the sacrificial observances, for the most part no
longer practicable, they indulge in mystical interpretations
these, which are then followed up in the oldest Upani-
In the latter we often see the fundamental con
ception of the atman doctrine appearing in symbolical
guise, and we should be disposed to trace in allegorical
speculations of this nature the earliest origin of the
Upanishad doctrine. That it is not so, that the doctrine
of the atman as the sole reality has not been developed
originally from ritualistic conceptions, but was adapted to
them first in later times, we have inferred above (p. 17ff.)
from the tradition surviving still in numerous inSes
Upamshads, that it was kings, i.e. Kshatriyas
from whom the Brfihmans first received the most import
ant elements of the atman doctrine. This they then
appropriated in their own way, combining it in allegorical
fashion with the entirely heterogeneous methods of the
This view finds an unexpected but all the more
valuable confirmation in the manner in which the different
schools of the Veda arrived at the conception of the atman
qrj,he prana as its precursor. It is evidenced, that is to

INTERPRETATIONS OF RITUAL 121

say, by the fact that each Veda starts from the ritual
service peculiar to it, the adherents of the Rigveda from
the uktham, those of the Samaveda from the udyitha, and
the schools of the white Yajurveda from the as'vamed/ta,
in order by a symbolical interpretation to arrive at the
conception of the prana or atman. It is however incon
ceivable that the atman doctrine should have originated
on so different yet parallel lines of development, while the
facts are completely explained on the supposition that the
doctrine of the prana-atman was taken over from another
source, and harmonised by each school to the best of its
ability with the ruling ideas of its ritual. This we pro
pose to illustrate by a few examples.

The chief function of the priests of the Rigveda is the
recitation of ihe^s'astram (hymn of praise), which was
chosen for the purpose on each occasion from the hymns
of the Rigveda. The uktham however is " the most
beautiful, most famous, most potent among the s'astras." l
This is identified by the Aitareyins under several alle
gorical forms with the prana ; 2 while the Kaushitakins
identify the uktham with Brahman (materialised in ric',
yajus, saman).3 As the priests of the Rigveda regarded
the uktham as the climax of their service, so those of the
Samaveda looked upon the chanting of the udgttha, which
was similarly identified with the syllable om, the prana,
the sun, or the purusha in the sun and the eye ; while
in Chand. 2 the complete sdman, whose climax is formed
by the chanting of the udgitha, is compared with various
cosmical and psychical conditions. The early portions of
the Upanishad - Brahmana, which, including the Kena
Upan., belongs to the Talavakara school of the Samaveda,
is concerned with allegories of an entirely similar character.
For the priests of the Yajurveda who are entrusted with
the carrying out of the sacred rites a similar part is taken

1 Kaush. 2. 6. 2 Ait. Ar. 2. 1-3. 3 Kaush. 2. 6.

122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

by the act of sacrifice itself, and here again also it is the
highest of all the sacrificial observances, viz. the horse-
sacrifice (ds'vamedha), with which Brili. 1. 1-2 begins, in
order to recognise in the steed the universe, into which
Prajapati is transformed with the object of again offering
himself in sacrifice. In Taitt. Samh. 7. 5. 25 also this
allegorical interpretation of the horse of the sacrifice as
the universe is found, and in Taitt. Up. 1. 5 in a different
way the interdict of the sacrificial animal is broken
through, in that a fourth sacred word of the sacrifice
n\.«lm.s, which must denote Brahman, is added to the three
bkur bhuvali svar, which are interpreted as earth, atmo
sphere and heaven. The remaining schools of the
Yajurveda appear to have started in their allegorising
from another aspect of the cult, from the disposal of the
sacred fire-altars, as may be inferred from Kfith. 1 and
Maitr. 1. I.1 Throughout, however, we see how the ritual
representations are, according to the Vedic schools them
selves, only different means whereby expression may be
given under an allegorical garb to thoughts common to all.
Of other allegorical interpretations we will cite further
only that of thejTai/oM, the first in order of Vedic metres,
consisting of three feet (--„-.-,-, thrice repeated), to
which an imaginary fourth was afterwards added. In this
quadrupedal form the Gayatri is a symbol of Brahman,
who is likewise four-footed. Later on we shall have to
consider this four-footed character of Brahman, and its
connection with the four states of the soul, waking, dream
ing, deep sleep, and turiya. In their manner of treat
ment of the symbolical Gayatri the two chief texts adopt
entirely different methods. According to Chand. 3. 12,
the text of the Veda and all created things, the earth, the
body, the heart, and the vital organs, these six form the one
sixfold foot of the Gayatri, and the three remaining feet2

1 cp. Maitr. G. 33. 2 With reference to Kigv. X. 90, 3.

INTERPRETATIONS OF RITUAL 123

are immortal in heaven, and are symbolised by space, the
physical body and heart; in Brih. 5. 14, on the contrary,
three feet of the Gayatri appear under a material form
as the worlds, the vedas, and the vital breaths, while only
the fourth (turiya) is transcendent, and finds expression
symbolically in the sun, the eye, truth, power, and life.

In this way on the rise of the new teaching an attempt
_was_m_ade_ to preserve the traditional heirlooms of the
ritual, while transforming them into symbols of the fitman
doctrine. Soon however men went further, and en
deavoured to supersede the most important of the tradi
tional observances by other ceremonies adapted to the
teaching concerning the atman. In Brih. 3. 1, for
example, for the four priests (ho tar, adhvaryu, udgatar,
brahman) the four cosmical and the corresponding psych
ical phenomenal forms of the atman are substituted (as
fire and speech, sun and eye, wind and breath, moon and
manas), and instead of the usual rewards there was
introduced union with the atman as realised in the
universe. Similarly in Chand. 4. 16. 2, instead of the
brahman his manas is introduced, and instead of the hotar,
adhvaryu, and udgatar, the vac' embodied in them.

A further attempt to transcend the sacrificial ritual
is found in the conception of the man himself and his
life as an act of service. Thus in Chand. 3. 16 the three
periods of human life appear in place of the three bruisin^s
of the Soma, and in a different way in Chand. 3. 17 the
functions of hungering, eating, begetting, etc., replace the
chief acts of the Soma sacrifice. In detail this thought is
carried out by assigning the different organs and functions
to the requirements and acts of the sacrifice,1 and else
where with still greater elaboration.2

Finally, in many of the instances enumerated it
remains doubtful whether it is intended merely to inter-

1 Mahan. 64. 2 Prunagmh. Upan. 3-4.

I24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

pret allegorically the still existing sacrificial cult, or to set
it aside and replace it by physical and psychical conditions.
The latter is distinctly the case with the last and most
important phenomenon that we have to notice, where the
agnihotram is replaced by the prdna-agnihotram.

The agnihotram, consisting in a twice repeated liba
tion of boiled milk, which was poured into the fire every
morning at sunrise and at sunset every evening, and
thus was offered to the gods, and with them to all beings,
had to be maintained throughout his life (ydvaj-jivam) by
the man who hud once entered into the estate of a house
holder. After the prana, indwelling in us all, had been
introduced in place of the gods, the attempt was made to
replace the agnihotram or fire-sacrifice by a prdna-ayni-
hotrmn, a sacrifice offered in the fire of prana. The con
tinual inspiration and cxspiration necessary for the
maintenance of life (prana} might be regarded as such.
A first trace of this idea may be found in the words of
Brili. 1. 5. 23 :- ' Therefore if a man would observe a
vow, he should inhale and exhale and wish, 'May not
evil or death seize me/"1 This "inner agnihotram"2
occurs with a more developed character and a clearer

repudiation of the agnihotram cult in Kaush. Up. 2. 5 :

' These two sacrifices (of inspiration and speech, i.e. ex-
spiration 3) are endless and immortal ; for whether awake
or asleep they are continually being offered. The other
sacrifices, on the contrary, are limited, for they consist
of works. Therefore the wise men of old (who in the
Upanishads are cited quite commonly as authority when
novel ideas are introduced) did not offer the agnihotram."
Like the breathing here, so the nutrition of the body also
might be conceived as a sacrifice offered in the fire of diges-

1 cp. also Ait. Ar. 3. 2. 6. 8.

2 anJaram, agnihntram ; cp. also Kaush. Ar. 10.

3 cp. Pnw'na 4. 4 : " The two libations of the exspiration and inspiration."

INTERPRETATIONS OF RITUAL 125

tion (identified in Brih. 5. 9 with the ayni vais'vdnara),
and be substituted for the traditional agnihotram. Here
also is found the first trace of the thought in Brih. 1. 5. 2 :
—"For all food which he (who knows this) consumes, that
he presents (to the atman and through it) to the gods."
An amplified description of this new kind of agnihotram
appears first in Chand. 5. 19-24. There is no further-
need of a specially prepared milk offering, "whatever
food is nearest to hand, that is suitable for sacrifice." l
Sacrifice is offered also in the dhavaniya fire of the
mouth, since the five libations, of which this sacrifice
presented to the prana consists, viz. — the inspiration, inter-
spiration, exspiration, the all- and up-breathing, and with
them the corresponding five organs of sense, are for
the benefit of the five nature gods and the five world
spheres.2 In a neighbouring passage the rinsing of the
mouth customary before arid after eating is conceived as
a swathing of the prana with water.3 Both acts, the
nourishing and the swathing of the prana (with obvious
reference to Chand. 5. 24), are connected together, and
provided with corresponding rules in Maitr. 6. 9. Accord
ing to this passage also, the customary agnihotram seems
to be superseded by the pranagnihotram (atman eva
yajati), while in the appendix Maitr. 6. 34 both are pre
served side by side in that the agnihotram restored to
its rightful position is conceived as the " openly made "
pranagnihotram. A final step in this development is
indicated in the Pranagn. Up. 1-2, which, presupposing
apparently all the passages just quoted, declares the
customary agnihotram to be superfluous, and for the
pranagnihotram prescribes a minutely elaborated ritual.

1 Chand. 5. 19. 1.

2 cp. the more detailed discussion in Deussen, Upan., p. 146 f.
8 Chand. 5. 2. 2 ; cp. Brih. 6. 1. 14.

126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

IV. THE ESSENTIAL BRAHMAN

1. Introduction

In the later Vedanta, by a combination of his three
essential attributes, Brahman is described as sac'c'idd-
nanda,i.e. as " being (sat) mind (c'it) and bliss (dnanda).
This name does not occur in any except the latest of the
Upanishads, and has not yet been found in Badarayana
or S'ankara. We are able however, with a measure of
probability, to trace in the Upanishads the steps that led
up to it, inasmuch as the more reflection on Brahman was
emancipated from symbolic representations, the more it
was concentrated on these three ideas, just as occasionally
also a combination of them was attempted. Thus at the
close of his great discussion with the nine interlocutors,
Yajiiavalkhya declares, turning to them all i1 " Brahman
is bliss and knowledge " (vijndnam dnandam brahma) ;
and in the following section,2 where he reduces six
symbolical methods of representation to their true value,
satyam, prajnd and dnanda also appear side by side with
three other attributes of the divine being. Taitt. 2. 1
approximates yet closer to the character of the formula
that was customary later, when it is said in a poetical
passage that forms the climax of the development of
thought : —

He who knows Brahman

_As__tnithj knowledge, infinite (satyam jfidnam anantam),
Hidden in the cavity (of the heart) and in farthest space,
He obtains every wish
In communion with Brahman, the omniscient.

Since here, at the opening of the Anandavalli, a refer
ence to Brahman as dnanda (bliss) would be entirely
in place, while there was no special occasion to describe

1 Brih. 3. 9. 28. 2 Brih. 4. 1.

THE ESSENTIAL BRAHMAN 127

the Brahman as anantam (infinite) just at this point where
stress was to be laid especially on his indwelling in the
heart, the suggestion has been made l that anantam might
not improbably be an ancient error, ratified after a time
by tradition, for dnandam, which arose from the fact that
the three predicates were taken for nominative, a position
very rarely occupied by dnandam. If this is accepted we
should have here the earliest occurrence of the formula so
celebrated in later times. It must be admitted however
that the force of our argument is weakened by the con
sideration that it is apparently a quotation that lies before
us, and that this as such may not so confidently be
brought into harmony with the following words. It
is also difficult to understand how, assuming the
universality of the reading anantam, a tradition of
dnandam (in sac'c'iddnanda) could have maintained itself
by its side. A combination of the four predicates
mentioned is found in the somewhat late Upanishad
Sarvopanishatsara, No. 21, where Brahman is defined as
"true, knowledge, infinite, bliss." An explanation of
these four conceptions is added, and then it is said :—
"That of which these four realities (being, knowledge,
infinite, bliss) are a characteristic, and which subsists
without change in space, time, and causality (des'a-kdla-
nimitteshu), is called the supreme atman or the supreme
Brahman, indicated by the word/ that' (in tat tvam asi)."
Thus we see the origin of the formula sac'-c'id-dnanda,
which appears as such first (apart from Taitt. 2. 1) in
Nrisimhottaratap. 4. 6. 7 and Kamapurvatap. 92, Ramot-
taratap. 2. 4. 5, and is subsequently employed times with
out number. Let us also use it as a framework in

1 See Deussen, Upan., p. 225.

2 satyam jndnam anantam dnandam Iralima ; for which Codex ^, with a
more definite reference to Taitt. 2. 1 and Brili. 3. 9. 28, reads,— -satyam jndnam
anantam brahma, vijndnam dnandam brahma.

128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

order to summarise the most important conceptions of
the Upanishads under the headings, — Brahman as sat,
as c'it, and as dnanda. In the present chapter we have
yet to discuss the contradictory nature of Brahman and
his uukuowableness.

2. Brahman as Being and not-Briny (sat and asat), as

Reality and not-Reality (satyam and asatyam)
As early as Rigveda X. 129. 1, with a degree of philo
sophical insight remarkable when the date is considered,
it is said of the primeval condition of things, the primeval
substance, therefore of Brahman in the later sense, that
at that time there was na asad, na u sad, " neither not-
being nor yet being." Not the former, for a not-being
neither is nor has been ; not the latter, because empirical
reality, and with it the abstract idea of "being" derived
from it, must be denied of the primeval substance. Since
however metaphysics has to borrow all its ideas and
expressions from the reality of experience, to which the
circle of our conceptions is limited, and to remodel them
solely in conformity with its needs, it is natural that in
process of time we should find the first principle of things
defined now as the (not-empirical) being, now as the
(empirical) not-being. The latter occurred already in the
two myths of the creation r1 — "This universe in truth in
the beginning was not-being ; for they say, What was
this not-being ? " 2 and " This universe in truth in the
beginning was nothing at all. There was no heaven,
no earth, no atmosphere. This being that was solely
not-being conceived a wish, May I be,"3 etc. Simi
larly, in some passages of the Upanishads : - - " This
universe was in the beginning not-being ; this (not-
being) was being. It arose ; thereupon an egg was

1 See Allyemeine Getchirhfe, I. 1, pp. 199, 202.

•S'atap. Br. 6. 1. 1. 1. 3 Taitt. Br. 2. 2. 9. 1.

BRAHMAN AS BEING AND NOT-BEING 129

developed," etc.1 And in Taitt. 2. 7, where the verse is
quoted :—

Not-being was this in the beginning ;
From it being arose.
Self-fashioned indeed out of itself,
Therefore is it named " well-fashioned."

The preceding words show clearly how this is to be under
stood, for there at the beginning the verse is quoted,
"He is not as it were not-being, who knows Brahman as
not-being," and it is then further explained how Brahman
creates the universe, and as the (empirical) not-being, the
unreal, is contrasted with it as the being, the real. " After
he had created it, he entered into it ; after he had entered
into it, he was :—

The being and the beyond (sat and tyat),
Expressible and inexpressible,
Founded and foundationless,
Consciousness and unconsciousness,
Reality and unreality.

As reality he became everything that existed ; for this
men call reality (tat satyam iti dc'akshate)." A similar
distinction is drawn as early as Brih. 2. 3. 1, — " In truth,
there are two forms of Brahman, that is to say :—

The formed and the unformed,

The mortal and the immortal,

The abiding and the fleeting,

The being and the beyond (sat and tyatu)"

This passage, in spite of the air of a compilation which
the chapter of which it forms the opening wears, gives an
impression of greater age, and perhaps the passage from the
Taittiriya is connected with it, and develops the thought
further by more clearly contrasting Brahman as the beyond,
inexpressible, foundationless, unconscious, unreal with the
universe as the being, expressible, founded, conscious, real.
At the same time this decides the question, which may well

1 Chand. 3. 19. 1.
9

130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

have agitated men's minds at that time, whether the universe
originated from the being or the not-being ; at which ques
tion the (probably older) passage Chand. 6. 2. 1 glances : —
"Being only, my good sir, this was in the beginning, one
only and without a second. Some indeed say that this
was not-being in the beginning, one only and without a
second ; from this not-being being was born. But how,
my good sir, could this be so ? How could being be born
from not-being ? Being therefore rather, my good sir, this
was in the beginning, one only and without a second."
Tn harmony with the position thus taken up in the follow
ing exposition of Chand. 6, Brahman is usually named sat
" being" or satyam " reality."

.The word satyam (reality) also is used precisely as
sat with a twofold meaning. While it denotes Brahman
in the section Chand. 6 just referred to (so especially in
the well-known formulas, — tat satyam, sa dtmd, tat tv'am
asi), and is found with this meaning in Brih. 5. 4, in the
same Upanishad Brih. 2. 1. 20 l satyam is on the contrary
the reality of experience, and Brahman is contrasted with
it as satyasya satyam, that which alone in this reality is
truly real : — " Its secret name (upanishad) is ' the reality
of reality'; that is to Say, the vital breaths (prdndh) are
the reality, and it is their reality." The same words recur
in Brih. 2. 3. 6 ; that they are here borrowed is evident
from the fact that reference to the empirical reality as
"the vital breaths" (prdndh) was justified by the preced
ing words in Brih. 2. 1. 20 only, and not in Brih. 2. 3. 6.
In Brih. 1. 6. 3 also, as in these passages, satyam denotes
the real in an empirical sense : — " It is the immortal,
veiled by the reality (amritam satyena c'hannam) ; the
prana, that is to say, is the immortal, name and form
are the reality ; by these that prana is veiled." The
words amritam satyena c'hannam appear to be one of

1 =2.3.6.

BRAHMAN AS BEING AND NOT-BEING 131

those ancient mystical formulae, accompanied by their
explanation, which we have already conjecturally assigned
as the oldest form of the Upanishads. Since the opposite
of satya (true) is usually anrita (untrue), it is perhaps
conceivable that the formula in another recension took the
form anritam satyena c'hannam. This would explain the
curious play upon the word satyam which is carried out
in Brih. 5. 5. 1 : — " This satyam consists of three syllables.
The first syllable is sa, the second ti, the third yam.
The first and the last syllables are the truth (satyam},
in the middle is the untruth (anritam) ; this untruth is
enclosed on both sides by the truth (anritam uWiayatah
satyena parigrihitam) ; by this means it becomes an
actual being" (by Brahman the universe acquires its
reality). The three syllables are differently explained
in Chand. 8. 3. 5, sa as the immortal, ti as the mortal,
and yam as the point of meeting (yam, yac'c'hati) of
both; and again differently in Kaush. 1. 6 the syllable
-tyam in the word satyam has reference to the gods and
the vital breaths (external and internal nature), and the
syllable sat- to the "being" distinct from the gods and
the vital breaths, and exalted above them.

FJOT the later Upanishads the question whether Brah-
jnan is (not-empirical) being or (empirical) not-being has
no further significance. These, like all other pairs of
opposites, are transcended by Brahman. He is " neither
being nor not-being " ; l " higher than that which is and
that which is not " ; 2 he comprehends in himself empirical
reality, the realm of ignorance, and eternal reality, the
kingdom of knowledge : —

Two there are that in the eternal infinite supreme Brahman

Lie hidden, knowledge and ignorance ;

Ignorance is fleeting, knowledge eternal.

Yet he who as lord ordains them is that other.3

1 S'vet. 4. 18. 2 Mund. 2. 2. 1. 8 S'vet. 5. 1.

1 32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

3. Brahman as Consciousness, Thought (c'it)

The conception of the dtman implies that the first
principle of things must above all he sought in man's inner
self. The inner nature of a man however is not accessible
in the same way as his exterior. While the external
appearance as body with all its organs and functions is
exposed to view, and both the outer form and the inner
play of bones and joints, of sinews, muscles and nerves,
lie open to investigation on all sides, the knowledge of
our inner nature is very limited and one-sided. We have
no immediate perception of the body from within in the
totality of its organs and their functions, like our view
of it from without. Rather is our inner nature like a
great house with many floors, passages and chambers,
of which only a part is illuminated by a light burning
in an upper storey, while all the rest remains in darkness,
but is none the less real and existing. On first entering
such a house, the mistake might easily arise of imagining
the light the centre of the house, and that the accommo
dation of the latter extended only as far as the rays of
the light reached, and all else since it was invisible might
be regarded as altogether non-existent. It is due to this
cause that the philosophising spirit of mankind in India,
Greece, and modern times has with remarkable unanimity
fallen into an error, which we can most briefly describe
by the word intellectualism, and which consists in the
belief that the innermost essence of man and of the
universe, call it Brahman, first principle or deity, can bear
any similarity or analogy or identity with that which we
meet with here " behind man's pale forehead," as conscious
ness, thought or spirit. Yet whatever judgement may
be passed on the value of this conception, in any case the
entire development of philosophy from Plato and Aristotle
to the present with few exceptions has been dominated

BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS 133

by the thought that the nature of the soul, and in con
nection therewith the nature of god, is to be conceived
as something related or analogous to human thought, as
reason, spirit or intelligence. And as in Western philosophy
the origin of this thought may be traced as far back as
Xenophanes (o£Xo<? opa, o£Ao? 8e voel, ov\o<; Se T a/eouet), and
Parmenides (TWVTOV 8' ea-rl voeiv re KOI ovvetcev eVrt VOT^O),
so in India the leading advocacy if not the earliest origi
nation of the very same idea is attached to the name of
Yajiiavalkhya. All his views put forward in the Bri-
hadaranyaka Upanishad centre in the conviction that
Brahman, the atman, is the knowing subject within us ;
and on this very account, as we shall see later on, is
unknowable.

Thus in Brih. 3. 4 he is invited by Ushasta to
explain " the immanent, not transcendent Brahman, that
as soul is within all." For answer he refers to the soul,
which by inspiration and exspiration, by the intermediate
and the up-breathing, manifests itself in experience as
the vital principle. To the objection that this is only
to point to the fact, not to give an explanation of it,
he rejoins : — " Thou canst not see the seer of seeing,
thou canst not hear the hearer of hearing, thou canst not
comprehend the comprehender of comprehension, thou
canst not know the knower of knowledge ; he is thy soul,
that is within all." And to confirm the assertion that
the knowing subject here characterised by him constitutes
not only the essence of the soul but, in and with that,
the essence of the godhead, he adds, "Whatever is distinct
from that is liable to suffering."

He concludes therefore his description in Brih. 3. 8. 11
of the almighty being who sustains and pervades space,
and with it the entire universe, with the words : — " In
truth, 0 Gargi, this imperishable one sees but is not seen,
hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not compre-

134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

bended, knows but is not known. Beside him there is
none that sees, beside him there is none that hears, beside
him there is none that comprehends, beside him there
is none that knows. In truth, 0 Gargi, in this imperish
able one is space inwoven and interwoven." (It cleaves,
according to Kant, to the knowing subject.)

In the instruction given to Maitreyi, in Brih. 2. 4.
11, Yajnavalkhya compares the atman to the ocean. As
this is the meeting-place of all waters, so the atman as
eye is the meeting-place of all forms, as ear of all sounds,
as nose of all smells, etc. For the correctness of our
view of this passage let Brih. 1. 4. 7 in the first instance
bear testimony: — "as breathing he is named breath,
as speaking speech, as seeing eye, as hearing ear, as
understanding mind ; all these are but names for his
operations." So also Chand. 8. 12. 4: — "When the
eye is directed on space, he is the spirit in the eye, the
eye (itself) serves (only) for seeing ; and if a man desires
to smell, it is the atman, the nose serves only for smell
ing ; and if a man desires to speak, it is the atman, the
voice serves only for speaking ; and if a man desires to
hear, it is the fitman, the ear serves only for hearing ;
and if a man desires to understand, it is the atman, the
mind is his divine eye. With this divine eye, the mind,
he perceives these joys and delights therein." If we
consider that this thought is here somewhat abruptly
joined on to that which precedes, and in general occupies
an isolated position in the circle of the ideas of the
Chandogya, while with Yajnavalkhya it forms the central
point of all his reasoning, it becomes probable that
borrowing has taken place on the side of the Chandogya.
The same may be true of the entire exposition of Kaush.
3, which traces out in detail the dependence of the objects
of sense on the organs of sense, and of the latter again
on the prajuu,tma,ny the " self- consciousness " (repeatedly

BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS 135

explained as identical with the atman) ; whereupon it is
said in close accord with the above passages : — " Into
him as eye all forms are gathered, by the eye he reaches
all forms ; into him as ear all sounds are gathered, by the
ear he reaches all sounds," etc.

The most complete exposition by Yajfiavalkhya of his
theory of the atman as the knowing subject persisting
without change through the states of waking, dreaming,
deep sleep, death, migration and final deliverance of the
soul is found in the incomparable section Brih. 4. 3-4.
Here the king Janaka first proposes the question,—
" What serves man for light ? " Yajfiavalkhya returns an
evasive answer, — the sun serves him for light. When,
however, the sun has set ? — The moon. And when this
also has set ? — The fire. And when this also is ex
tinguished ? — The voice. And when this also is silenced ?
— " Then is he himself (atman) his own light." " What do
you mean by self? " " It is the spirit behind the organs
of sense which is essential knowledge, and shines within
in the heart." The further description is given how this
spirit, while remaining the same, roves through this
world in waking and dreaming, through the world of
Brahman in deep sleep and death ; how in waking it
surveys the good and evil of this world without being
moved thereby, "for nothing cleaves to this spirit" (the
knowing subject stands opposed to everything that is
objective) ; how in dreaming it builds up a world for
itself, " for it is the creator "; how finally, in deep dream
less sleep, wrapped round by the self that consists of
knowledge, the prdjna atman, i.e. the absolute knowing
subject, it has no consciousness of objects, and yet is not
unconscious ; — " when then he sees not, yet is he seeing,
although he sees not ; since for the seer there is no inter
ruption of seeing because he is imperishable ; but there
is no second beside him, no other distinct from him for him

136 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

to see.": Compare the cognate passage Brih. 2. 1. 17-20,
according to which on falling asleep all the prdnas (eye,
ear, etc.) enter into the atman, and on waking all the vital
spirits, worlds, gods and living beings spring forth from
him again like sparks from the fire. The above passage
Brih. 4. 4. 1 f. further describes how at death all the vital
powers gather around the knowing subject, in order with him
to go forth to a new incarnation, — " because he has become
one, therefore he does not see, as they say " (in reality he
continues ever seeing) ; and how finally after deliverance
has been attained the body is cast off like the skin of
a snake, " but the bodiless, the immortal, the life is pure
Brahman and pure light " (i.e. the knowing subject).
" In truth," it is said in conclusion, " this great un-
begotten self is of the vital organs that which consists of
knowledge." This identity of Brahman with the knowing
subject, which forms the ruling conception in the thought
of Yajnavalkhya, is most clearly expressed in a (certainly
later) modification of the illustration of the lump of salt
(preserved in its original form in Brih. 2. 4. 12) : — "It is
like a lump of salt, that has no (distinguishable) inner or
outer, but consists through and through entirely of savour ;
so in truth this atman has no (distinguishable) inner or outer,
but consists through and through entirely of knowledge."2

How deep Yajfiavalkhya's conception of Brahman as
the knowing subject has penetrated we see from the fact
that it dominates the entire succeeding development of
ideas, as we propose briefly to show.

In the first place, we must here recall to mind the
description of Brahman as "the light of lights."3 This
expression is nothing more than an epitome of the thought
expounded above, that the atman is itself its own light,

1 Bi'ih. 4. 3. 23. 2 Brih. 4. 5. 13.

2 jyotishdm j yotis, Brih. 4. 4. 66 ; taken over thence in Mund. 2. 2. 9, Bhag.
Gita 13. 17.

BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS 137

when sun, moon and fire cease to shine. Thus too is to
be explained the splendid verse that occurs thrice in
different schools : l —

There no sun shines, no moon, nor glimmering star,
Nor yonder lightning, the fire of earth is quenched ;
From him, who alone shines, all else borrows its brightness,
The whole world bursts into splendour at his shining.

The original position of this verse is in the Kathaka
Upanishad, though this treatise otherwise frequently be
trays its dependence on Brih. 4. 3-4.2 Of Chand. 8. 12. 4
we have already spoken above. When further it is said,
in the well-known passages Chand. 8. 3. 4 and 8. 12. 3,3
that the soul in deep sleep is raised from out of this body,
enters into the purest light (param jyotis) and thereby
assumes its proper form, the peculiar designation of Brah
man as param jyotis may well recall Yajnavalkhya's con
ception of the atman, which as the knowing subject is its
own light.

Associated with this thought, and like it of great
antiquity in India, is the conception of the divine world
as an eternal kingdom of light, in contrast to the dark
ness of this earth.4 This conception is combined further
on with the philosophical thought that the atman as the
knowing subject is its own light, to form the frequently
recurring idea of the eternal day of Brahman. This is the
case perhaps as early as Chand. 3. 11, where the descrip
tion is given how the sun after the close of the thirty-
one world-periods will " no longer rise or set, but remain
stationary in mid-heaven " ; how moreover for the wise
this condition is already attained now, so that for them
there is perpetual day (sakrid-divd ha eva asmai Wiavati).

JKath. 5. 15, S'vet. 6. 14, Mund. 2. 2. 10.

2cp. Kath. 4. 3-5, 5. 8.

3cp. Maitr. 2. 2, Brahma Up. 1.

4cp. the proverbial sayings quoted in Brih. 1. 3. 28, Chand. 3. 17. 6.

138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

More is found in Chand. 8. 4. 2, where Brahman is com
pared to a bridge : — " Therefore, in truth, even the night,
if it crosses this bridge, is changed into day, for this world
of Brahman " (which is in the heart) " is perpetual light
(sctkrid vibhdta)." The following passages are dependent
upon this : — " the darkness gives place, now there is no
longer day nor night"; l "when the darkness (of ignorance)
is pierced through, then is reached that which is not
affected with darkness ; and he who has thus pierced
through that which is so affected, he has beheld like a
glittering circle of sparks Brahman bright as the sun,
endowed with all might, beyond the reach of darkness,
that shines in yonder sun as in the moon, the fire and
the lightning";2 meditation on om leads in the
highest degree " to the eternal day of Brahman, whence is
the source of lights " ; 3 " for him (the sannyfisin) there is
neither day nor night ; therefore it was said also by the
rishi,4 'for it is a perpetual day';5 in yoga the spirit
becomes " wholly the light of knowledge alone, the eternal,
sleepless and dreamless, without name and form, alto
gether resplendent,6 omniscient, — to him worship is of
no more account " ;7 " the eternal, free from slumber and
dreams, is then his own light ; 8 for ever light 9 is this
being, this essential being in himself." 10

That the atman is the knowing subject within us, and
cannot therefore be an object of worship, is enforced also
in the opening verses of the Kena Upanishad. Here in
connection with a verse preserved in two very different
forms in Brih. 4. 4. 18 and Kena 2, which demands that
the eye shall be acknowledged solely as eye, the ear solely
as car,11 etc., and that accordingly they shall be regarded

1 S'vet. 4. 18. - Maitr. G. 24. 3 Nadabindu 17.

4 Cliaiid. 3. 11. 3. r' Kanthas'niti 2. " Chund. 8. 4. 1.

7 Gaudapfida (on the Mamlukya) 3. 35.

8 cp. Brih. 4. 3. 14, Kath. 5. 15. 9 Chand. 8. 4. 1.
1(1 Gaudapada, ib.t 4. 81. » Brih. 4. 4. 18.

BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS 139

as mere instruments,1 the thought is further developed
that speech, thought, eye, ear and the organ of smell do
not aid in -perceiving Brahman, hut themselves first, as
objects, are perceived by Brahman as the subject.2

The conviction that the atman is the knowing subject
has finally found an entrance also into the schools of the
Rigveda, although these are wont more usually to exalt
the atman as prdna or purusha (in the sense of Rigveda
X. 90). With this is immediately connected, in Ait. 3,
the doctrine that the atman is not that with which we
see, hear, smell, speak or taste (the organs of sense), but is
solely and alone consciousness (prajna) : — " Everything
that this heart and mind are, reflection, meditation, delibera
tion, invention, intelligence, insight, resolve, purpose, desire,
suffering, recollection, idea, force, life, love, will, — all these
are names of consciousness." All gods, all elemental forces,
all beings, " all this is guided by consciousness, grounded in
consciousness ; by consciousness this universe is governed,
consciousness is its foundation, consciousness is Brahman."
The second of the schools of the Rigveda, Kausli. 3 and
4, proceeds on somewhat different lines. Here the tradi
tional view of Brahman as prdna is combined with the
new recognition of Brahman as prajndtman (the self of
consciousness) by means of the assertion which accom
panies an admirable proof of the dependence of all the
objects and organs of sense on consciousness, and which
is constantly repeated : — "what the prana is, that is the
prajna, and what the prajna is, that is the prana." This
identification of conceptions so heterogeneous seems to
show that tlie doctrine of Brahman as the knowing subject
(prajna) among the Kaushitakins, and probably also
among the Aitareyins, is borrowed, and presumably is
jftdopted from the circle of thought of Yajfiavalkhya.

1 Kena 2 ; cp. in illustration Chand. 8. 12. 4, Kaush. 3. 8.

2 Kena 2-8.

1 40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

In the later philosophy this doctrine has shaped itself
into the broader conception of Brahman or the atman as
the " spectator " (sdkshin). This occurs first in S'vet. G. 1 1
(sdkshin) and Pras'na 6. 5 (paridrashtar), perhaps in
connection with Brih. 4. 3. 32 (salila).1

4. Brahman as Bliss (dnanda)

It is essential to the deeper religious consciousness to
regard the earthly life not as an end in itself, but merely
as a road by which we must travel to our true desti
nation. The three great religions of mankind therefore,
Brfihmanism, Buddhism, and Christianity, and not less
the philosophy of Schopenhauer, which represents Chris
tianity in its purest form, agree in teaching that the
highest aim of our endeavour is deliverance from the
present existence. This view assumes that this earthly
existence is a condition from which we need deliverance,
and is to that extent a conception of it which has been
briefly and well described as pessimism, — although recently
the sensational philosophy has laid its hands upon this
word, and has practised so childish a play upon it that
we shrink from using it any longer. The pessimistic view
of life is only so far justified as it is a presumption of the
doctrine of deliverance, so far therefore as it belongs, for
example, to the real and original Christianity : o ACOO-/XO? 6X09
ev ra> irovrjpu) Kelrat* In this sense pessimism is also the
latent underlying view of the Upanishad teaching. And
the later systems of Buddhism and the Sankhya philosophy
which are founded upon it, as well as some of the more
recent Upanishads, take pleasure in dwelling upon this
theme, as will subsequently be shown ; for men lend a
willing ear to the story of their own sufferings. In

1 Further references are given in the Index to the Upanishads under the
word " spectator."
' 1 Jo. 5".

BRAHMAN AS BLISS 141

contrast to these the older Upanishads are content in a
discreet and, as it were, modest style to recall occasionally
the nature of existence, full of suffering and exciting
longings for deliverance. Nor is this ever done in a better
or more fitting manner than in the difficult words that
suggest a wide experience, — ato }nyad drtam, " what is
distinct from him, that is full of suffering." : Contrasted
with all that is distinct from him and therefore involved
in suffering, Brahman is described in one of the passages
where this formula occurs as that which " oversteps
hunger and thirst, pain and illusion, old age and death," '*
or according to other passages as " the self (dtman), the
sinless, free from old age, free from death and free from
suffering, without hunger and without thirst." ; " His
name is ' exalted,' for he is exalted above all evil," 4 etc.
All these frequently recurring descriptions are summed up
in the designation of Brahman as dnanda, " bliss."

The view that the gods, in contrast to the suffering
world of men, enjoy an untroubled felicity, is probably
common to all peoples. But in the Upanishads bliss
appears not as an attribute or a state of Brahman, but as
his peculiar essence. Brahman is not dnandin, possessing
bliss, but dnanda, bliss itself. This identification of
Brahman and dnanda is effected through the medium of
the view that, on the one hand, the deep, dreamless sleep,
by destroying the existing contrast of subject and object,
is a temporary union with Brahman ; while on the other
hand, since all suffering is then abolished, the same state
is described as a bliss admitting of no enhancement.5

1 Brih. 3. 4. 2, 3. 5..1, 3. 7. 23. 2 Brih. 3. 5. 1.

3 Chand. 8. 1. 5, 8. 7. 1. 4 Chand. 1. 6. 7.

5 cp. Plato, Apol. 40rf, where Socrates speaks of a night ev ?? OVTV nartSapOev
eoo-re p.rj& ovap t'Seu/, and is of opinion that even the King of Persia has not
many days or nights which are comparable \vith this in happiness ; cp. Shake
speare also, Hamlet, in. i.,— " and by a sleep to say we end The heartache
and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,— 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd."

142 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

We propose now to show how the conception of Brahman
as bliss is originally based on these ideas. Here too the
Brihadaranyaka takes the leading place.

' When however he is overcome by deep sleep, when
he is conscious of nothing, then the veins called hitah
("beneficent") are active, seventy-two thousand of which
ramify from the heart outwards in the pericardium ; into
these he glides, and reposes in the pericardium ; and like
a youth or a great king or a great Brahman enjoying an
excess of Miss (atighntm dnandasya] reposes, so he also
then reposes." This passage2 appears to be traceable
back to the detailed description of deep sleep in Brih.
4. 3. 19-33, which, although it does not yet define the
number of veins, in its exaltation of bliss in 4. 3. 33 oives

(^

the key to the atighnim dnandasya, and in general (apart
from interpolations) makes an impression of greater origin
ality. Here, after a description of deep sleep as the state
"in which he, fallen asleep, experiences no further desire,
and sees no dream image," and after mention of the veins,
the transition is described from the dream consciousness to
the consciousness of deep sleep, — from the consciousness
of being this or that to the consciousness of being all
(aham era idam sarvo 'smi), whereby subject and object
become one ; it is then said : — " That is his real form, in
which he is exalted above desire, and is free from evil and
fear. For just as one who dallies (the original meaning of
dnanda) with a beloved wife has no consciousness of outer
or inner, so the spirit also, dallying with the self whose
essence is knowledge (prdjnena dtmand, i.e. with Brahman)
has no consciousness of inner and outer. That is his real
form, wherein desire is quenched, and he is himself his
own desire, separate from desire and from distress. Then
the father is no longer father, the mother no longer
mother, the worlds no longer worlds, the gods no longer

1 Brih. 2. 1. 19. * Like its parallel, Kaush. 4. 19.

BRAHMAN AS BLISS 143

gods, the vedas no longer vedas," etc., all contrasts have
disappeared, " then is he unaffected by good or evil, then
has he subdued all the griefs of his heart." This state is
then further described as one of pure knowledge, of exist
ence as subject without object (cf. the vo^ais poqcrew), and
it is then added, — " This is his supreme goal, this is his
supreme happiness, this is his supreme world, this is his
supreme bliss ; by a small portion only of this bliss all
other creatures live." In explanation of this sentence
(which for that reason is probably original here, and
borrowed from this place in Taitt. 2. 8, where the thought
is further developed) the proof is finally offered by means
of a progressive advance through six (in Taitt. 2. 8, ten)
grades, how the highest human bliss is only a billionth
part (in Taitt. 2. 8, a hundred trillion th) of bliss in the
world of Brahman, — " and this is the supreme bliss, this
is the world of Brahman " (which is in the heart).

In this passage of the Brihadaranyaka we evidently
have before us the origin of the doctrine of Brahman as
bliss. The entire passage treats of deep sleep, and describes
it on the one hand as union with Brahman, on the other
as a state of supreme unsurpassable bliss, until in the con
cluding words, — " this is the supreme bliss, this is the
Brahman world," — the identification of Brahman and bliss
is complete. That by " the Brahman world " is to be
understood not the world of Brahman, but Brahman as
the world (not Irahmano lokah, but brahma eva lokah)
is already justly remarked by the commentator, p. 815. 5.
and 915. 7. Accordingly the entire doctrine of Brahman
as bliss appears to rest upon this passage, in which we are
able to observe its birth,1 and the consideration of the
remaining passages that contain this doctrine makes it
appear quite possible that they are all derived from our

1 The description of all the gods as dnanda-dtmdnah, given as early as S'atap.
Br. X. 3. 5. 13, is an entirely di fie rent thing.

144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

passage, Brih, 4. 3. 19-33. We have already discussed
Brih. 2. 1. 19 (and Kaush. 4. 19). The word dnanda does
not occur in the Chtind. Up. ; but when it is said in
Chand. 4. 10. 5 : — "Brahman is life (prdna), Brahman is
joy (kam), Brahman is space (k/iam)" kham stands here
for dkds'a and kam for dnanda ; and the formal setting
side by side of the three ideas, prana, dnanda, dkd'sa
gives the impression of a later attempt at harmonisation.
Chand. 7. 23 also, where pleasure (sukham, here = dnanda)
is identified with Bhuman (yo vai bhrimd tat sukham) by
the following description which is given of bhiiman as the
knowing subject without object suggests the conjecture
of a dependence again on the circle of thought of
Yajriavalkhya. The Kaushitaki Upanishad celebrates
Brahman, as noticed above, as the prdna identical with
the prajnd, and accordingly employs the word dnanda
only in its original meaning of " sexual desire." It is all
the more surprising that in Kaush. 3. 8, after it has just
been said that we ought not to seek for dnanda but for
the dnandasya vijndtar, there is immediately added :—
" This prana however is the prajriatman, is bliss (dnanda},
never ageing, and immortal." Here the borrowing of the
word dnanda from another circle of thought is quite
unmistakable.

The chief passage treating of Brahman as bliss is the
Anandavalli, Taitt. 2.1 Where the annamaya, prdnamaya,
manomaya and vijndnamaya dtman are in turn stripped
off as mere husks in order to penetrate to the dnanda-
maya dtman as kernel. Of this atman consisting of bliss
it is then said : — " Love is his head, joy his right side,
joyousness his left side, bliss his trunk, Brahman his
under part, his base." Brahman, that is here described as
the base of the self consisting of bliss, is originally non
existent (i.e. only metaphysically existing), and fashions

1 Taitt. 3 is only an imitation.

BRAHMAN AS BLISS 145

himself out of himself, as is further said, therefore is he
named well-fashioned. " What this well-fashioned one is,
in truth, that is the essence ; for when a man receives this
essence, then is he full of bliss ; for who could breathe,
who live, if that bliss were not in the dkas'a (the void,
from which the universe originated). For it is he who
creates bliss. For when a man finds his peace, his res tin o--
place, in that invisible, unreal, inexpressible, unfathomable
one, then has he attained to peace." Further, a warning
is given against pushing the craving for knowledge too
far, and against continuing to distinguish in the self con
sisting of bliss a subject and object, whereby again a man
would fall under the dominion of fear. Then Taitt. 2. 8
follows with the heading, — " This is the treatise on bliss
(dnandasya mimdhsd)" Here we find the very same
ascription of power to bliss which is already known from
Brih. 4. 3. 33 ; in the latter passage it stands naturally as
explanatory of the preceding sentence, while in Taitt. 2. 8
it is introduced under an especial title, and without such
connection with the preceding. This circumstance, as
well as the increase of endowment from six limbs to ten
with several details, makes it probable that the two texts
do not spring from a common source, but that Taitt.
2. 8 depends directly on Brih. 4. 3. 33. If this is
accepted, then Taitt. 2 might prove to be directed
polemically against Brih. 4. 3-4. For the expression
vijndnamaya dtman (puruslia) denotes, in Brih. 4. 3. 7,
4. 4. 22,1 the knowing subject apart from object, and
therefore the supreme; while in Taitt. 2. 5 this
vijndnamaya is conceived as subject contrasted with
object, and contrary to Brih. 4. 3 is brought down to a
mere preliminary grade of the dnandamaya.

All later passages depend partly on Brih. 4. 3,2 partly
on Taitt. 2, as for example Mahanar. 63. 16, Maitr. 6. 13,

1 cp. 2. 1. 16. 2 cp. Mund. 2. 2. 7, Hand. 5 with Gaud. 1. 3-4.

146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

6. 23, 6. 27, 7. 3, Tejobindu 8 (dnandam nandana-
atttam), Sarvop. 9-13, etc. The earliest description of the
,/.,, ,/,/,.///,/, .•;,-. as "sheaths" (/-nx '/*) is t'mind perhaps in
the verse Maitr. 6. 27. Several of the later passages add
the conception of the dnandamaya as the innermost
kernel (corresponding to the original intention) ; others, in
the poetical description of it in Taitt. 2. 5, still discern
a multiplicity (priyam, moda, pramoda, dnanda), and
conceive it therefore as a fifth sheath, in which brahman,
designated in Taitt. 2. 5 the " foundation," holds its place
as kernel ; a view which gave rise in the later Vedanta to
an important discussion.

5. Negative Character and UnJcnowablenesss of the

essential Brahman

We have seen how the descriptions of Brahman as
being, thought and bliss (sac'-c'id-dnanda), which are
common in the later Vedanta, are founded on the ancient
Upanishads, and how their statements concerning Brahman
may be comprehended under these three ideas. But no
definite conclusion is by this means reached on these
lines as to the nature of Brahman. For the being, which
Brahman is, is not to be understood as such being as is
known to us by experience, but is rather, as we saw, in an
empirical sense a not-being. The descriptions of Brahman
as the knowing subject within us are usually accompanied
by the assertion that this knowing subject, the " knower
of knowing," remains himself always unknowable, the
intention being merely to deny thereby of Brahman all
objective existence. The bliss also, which is described as
the essence of Brahman, is not such a bliss as we know
or experience, but is only such as holds sway in deep
dreamless sleep, when the distinction of subject and object
and therefore consciousness has ceased. Accordingly all
three definitions of Brahman as being, thought or bliss

UNKNOWABLENESS OF BRAHMAN T49

are in essence only negative. Being is the negation of all
empirical being, thought the negation of all objective being,
bliss the negation of all being that arises in the mutual
relation of knowing subject and known object; and therefore
as the final result and main dogma of the Upanishad teaching
the conclusion is reached, as far as his peculiar and essential
being is concerned, Brahman is absolutely unknowable.

This unknowableness of Brahman, the atman, is already
most emphatically declared by the ancient Upanishads.
Yajnavalkhya sums up his speculations concerning the
atman no less than four times x in the celebrated
formula : — " He however, the atman, is not so, not so
(neti, neti). He is incomprehensible, for he is not
comprehended ; indestructible, for he is not destroyed ;
unaffected, for nothing affects him; he is not fettered,
is not disturbed, he suffers no harm." " In truth, this
great un begotten self does not grow old or decay, and is
immortal, fearless, is Brahman." 2 " That it is, 0 Gargi,
which the wise call the imperishable (aksharam) ; it is
neither thick nor thin, neither short nor long, neither red
(like fire) nor fluid (like water)? neither shadowy nor dark,
neither wind nor ether (space), not adhesive (like gum),
without taste or smell, without eye or ear, without speech,
without understanding, without vital force and without
breath, without mouth or size, without inner or outer ;
never consuming anything, nor consumed by any." 3

It is upon these passages that the amplifications of the
later Upanishads depend. Thus in Kath. 2. 18, where it is
said of the " seer " (vipas'c'it, i.e. the knowing subject) : —

The seer is not born and does not die,

He does not originate from any, nor become any,

The Ancient One, from everlasting abides everlastingly,4

Nor is he slain, for it is the body that is slain.

1 Bnh. 4. 2. 4, 4. 4. 22, 4. 5. 15, 3. 9. 26,— a fifth occurrence, Brih. 2. 3. 6, is
borrowed.

2 Brih. 4. 4. 25. 8 Brih. 3. 8. 8. 4 Brih. 4. 4. 18.

146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Similarly ill Mund. 1. 1. 5 : — "The higher (knowledge)
however is that by which that imperishable one l is
known ; that which

Invisible, incomprehensible, without genealogy, colourless,

Without eye or ear, without hands or feet,

Eternal, pervading all and over all, scarce knowable,

That unchangeable one

Whom the wise regard as being's womb."

Further : —

" That which remains inaudible, intangible, invisible,
Which can neither be tasted nor smelt, imperishable,
That abides eternal, without beginning or end, greater than the

greatest,
He who knows that has escaped from the jaws of death."2

And :-

" He stretches himself around, without frame or sinews,
Pure, unsullied, invulnerable, free from evil,
Gazing forth, by himself alone, all-embracing,
For each after its kind has he for all time determined the goal."3

The passage Chfmcl. 8. 1. 54 — "that is the atman, the
sinless, free from old age, free from death and suffering,
without hunger or thirst," seems to depend on Brih. 3. 5,
—"that (atman), who oversteps hunger and thirst, pain
and illusion, old age and death." In Chand. 6. 8-16, on the
other hand, the various phenomena of nature that engage
attention are traced back to their unknowable source, of
which it is said in the celebrated refrain nine times
repeated : — " What that subtle being (i.e. that unknow
able, animan) is by which this universe subsists, that is
the real, that is the soul, that art thou (tat tvam asi),
0 S'vetaketu ? "

The unknowableness of Brahman, which in the above
passages led to a denial to him of all empirical predicates,
is expressed in poetic style also by ascribing to Brahman

1 aksharam, cp. Brih. 3. 8. 8. 2 Kuth. 3. 15.

8ls'a8. 4 =8. 7. 1.

UNKNOWABLENESS OF BRAHMAN 149

the most contradictory and irreconcilable attributes, as
shown in the following two passages :—

"He stays, yet wanders far from hence,
He reposes, yet strays everywhere around,
The movement hither and thither of the god,
Who could understand besides me?"1

"One, — motionless and yet swift as thought, —
Departing, not even by gods to be overtaken ;
Standing still he yet overtakes all runners, —
In him the god of the wind interwove the primeval waters.

Eesting is he and yet restless,
Afar is he and yet so near !
He is within all,
And yet yonder outside of all."*

Here the opposite predicates of nearness and distance,
of repose and movement, are ascribed to Brahman in such
a manner that they mutually cancel one another, and
serve only to illustrate the impossibility of conceiving
Brahman by means of empirical definitions.

The impossibility of knowing Brahman is however
most clearly expressed in the formula of Yajfiavalkhya
already quoted, — neti, neti (na iti, na iti), " it is not so,
it is not so." As to its original meaning there is some
doubt. According to Hillebrandt,3 na is not the negative,
but an affirmative particle signifying " in truth," " it is."
Or the formula might be rendered ' na iti na ' iti, Brahman
"is not not," is the negation of negation, "a denial of a
denial," the " nihtesniht, daz e was denne nilit" as M.
Eckhart expresses it.4 These ideas however are opposed
not only to the consistency with which in the four passages
in which this formula originally appears 5 it is applied to
the elucidation of a series of negative predicates,6 but also

1 Kath. 2. 21. 2 Is'a 4-5.

3 In a review of my translation of the Upanishads, Deutsche Literaturz.,
1897, p. 1929. * ed. Pfeiffer, pp. 322, 539.

6 Byih. 4. 2. 4, 4. 4. 22, 4. 5. 15, 3. 9. 26. G agrihyo na hi yrihyate, etc.

150 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

to all the Indian explanations of the formula with which
we are acquainted. Such an explanation is already offered
in Brih. -5. 3. 6 : — na hi etasmdd — iti neti , -anyat param
asti, "for there is no other (definition) beyond this, that
it is not so" ; or (less appropriately), " for there no other
beside this (Brahman), therefore it is said, it is not so."
According to this explanation na iti stands for na evam,
as Badaray ana already explains :l — prakrita-etdvattvam hi
pratisJiedhati, "for it (the passage) denies the aforesaid2
being-so-and-so," and S'ankara (while giving the two ex
planations quoted above) confirms this sutra. Similarly at
an earlier period :—

The saying, " it is not so, not so,"
Rejecting all that can be expressed in word ;
As the assertion of unknowableness proves,
Can only be referred to Him.3

We have already learnt from the philosophy of Kant
that the entire empirical order of things is subject to the
laws of space, time and causality,4 and that the self-exist
ent, or in Indian language Brahman, in contrast with the
empirical system of the universe, is not like it in space
but is spaceless, not in time but timeless, not subject to
but independent of the law of causality. This proposition
could not express an eternal truth valid alike for all ages
and peoples without having been anticipated by all the
metaphysicians of the past, and therefore also in the
Upanishads. We propose to investigate this point here,
merely prefacing the remark that those ancient times were
frequently unable to formulate the idea of a spaceless,
timeless, causeless existence in its abstract simplicity, but
only to conceive its representation in experience. On
this assumption spacelessness is regarded as a disengage-

1 Sutram 3. 2. 22. 2 Brih. 2. 3. 6.

* Gaudapfida, Mundukyakfirika 3. 26.

4 desfa-Mla-nimitta^ as it is already expressed in a later Upani.shad, and
<juite a dozen times by S'ankara.

BRAHMAN AS INDEPENDENT OF SPACE 151

ment of Brahman from the laws of space, which assigns
limits to everything and appoints it a definite place and no
other, while Brahman is described as omnipresent, all-pre-
vading, unlimited, infinitely great and infinitely small.
Similarly the timelessness of Brahman appears as freedom
from the limitations of time, as an eternity without begin
ning or end, or again as instantaneous duration occupying no
time (as lightning). And finally, Brahman's independence
of causality is exhibited as freedom from all the laws of
becoming, the universal rule of which is causality, as cause-
lessness, absolute self-existence, and unchanging endurance.
(1) Brahman as spaceless. In Brih. 3. 8. 7 it is
said : — " That which is above the heaven, 0 Gfirgi, and
that which is beneath the earth, and that which is between
them, the heaven and the earth, that which men call the
past, present and future, that is woven within and
throughout in space." " But wherein then is space woven
within and throughout ? " The answer is given in a
magnificent description of Brahman as the imperishable
(aksharam), and in conclusion it is said : — " In truth, in
this imperishable one is space woven within and through
out, 0 Grargi." " This Brahman is independent of earlier
and later, of inner and outer ; this atman is Brahman, the
all-perceiving."1 "The front (eastern) regions of the
heaven are his front organs, the right (southern) regions
of the heaven are his right organs, the hinder (western)
regions of the heaven are his hinder organs, the left
(northern) regions of the heaven are his left organs, the
upper regions of the heaven are his upper organs, the
lower regions of the heaven are his lower organs, all the
regions of the heaven are all his organs."2 "It however
(the unlimited, the bliuman) is beneath and above, in the
west and the east, in the south and the north ; it is this
whole universe. — Next for the self-consciousness : I

1 Or all-prevading, sarvdnubhti, Brih. 2. 5. 19. 2 Brili. 4. -2. 4.

152 TOE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(ahum) am beneath and above, in the west and in the

east, in the south and in the north ; I am this whole

-Next for the soul (dtman) : The soul is beneath

and above, in the west and in the east, in the south and

m the north ; the soul is this whole universe."1 Cp the

passage Maitr. 6. 17:— "Brahman in truth was 'this

universe at the beginning, the one, the infinite ; infinite

towards the east, infinite towards the south, infinite in

the west, infinite in the north, and above and beneath

infinite on all sides. For him there is no eastern, or any

region of the heaven at all, no athwart, no beneath or

above/ In Chand. 3. 14. 3 also :—" This is my soul

(dtman) in my heart, smaller than a grain of rice or

barley or a mustard-seed, than a grain or~ the kernel of a

gram of millet ; this is my soul in my heart, greater than

the earth, greater than the air, greater than the heaven

greater than these worlds." Passages like these are in the

mind of the writer when in a frequently recurring verse z

Brahman is named " the smallest of the small and the

greatest of the great " ; and when the epithets " omni

present " 3 and " all-prevading " 4 are applied to him. The

description also of him as "indivisible"5 implies inde

pendence of space, since all that is in space is divisible.

Since further all that is in space as being divisible

involves a plurality, to deny all plurality of Brahman6

amounts to a rejection of the predicates of space as in

Kath. 4. 10-11 :—

That which is here is also there,
That which is there is also here;
From death to new death he rushes

fancies that he here sees difference!

7. 25. 2 Kath. 2. 20, S'vet 3. 20, Mahan 10 1

*sarvaga< S'vet. 6. 17, Muml. 3. 2. 5; sarvagata, S'vet. 3. 11 21
Mimd. 1. 1. 6.

4 vibhu, Kath. 2. 22, 4. 4 ; vydpaka, Kuth. 6. 8.

kkala, S'vet. 6. 1 9, Muml. 2. 2. 9 ; akala, S'vet. 6. 5, Pras'na 6. 5, Maitr. 6. 1 5.
As in Kaush. 3. 8 (no etan iiand\ Brih. 4. 4. 19.

BRAHMAN AS INDEPENDENT OF TIME 153

In the spirit should this be noted,
Here there is no plurality at all ;
From death to new death he strides,
Who i'ancies that he here sees difference !

(2) Brahman is timeless. Even more definitely than
of space, the predicate of time is denied of Brahman.
This is already the case in some of the passages quoted.
Further in the descriptions of him as " independent of
past and future";1 "Lord of the past and future";2
"exalted above the three times " ; 3 at whose feet time rolls
along, as it is said in the splendid description of Brih.
4. 4. 16-17 :-

At whose feet rolling on
In years and days time passes by,
Whom as the light of lights the gods
Adore, as immortality.

On whom the fivefold host of living beings,
Together with space4 depend,
Him know I as my soul,
Immortal the immortal.

More profound still is the thought of Maitr. 6. 15:

" In truth, there are two forms of Brahman, time and
not-time. That is to say, that which existed before the
sun is not-time, and that which began to be with the sun
is time, is the divisible." Perhaps this beginning of time
at a definite moment is to be understood here only in a
figurative sense, as in Plato.5 Just as Brahman's inde
pendence of space is figuratively represented not only
under the figure of infinite vastness, but also at the same
time of infinite littleness,6 so his independence of time
appears on the one hand as infinite duration,7 on the other

1 Kath. 2. 14. 2 Brih. 4. 4. 15, Kfith. 4. 5. 12. 13.

3 S'vet. 6. 5. 4 Brih. 3. 8. 5 Tim. 37 D seq.

6 Smaller than a grain of rice, etc., Chand. 3. 14. 3 ; smallest of the small,
Kath. 2. 20 ; of the size of a needle's point or the ten-thousandth part of the
tip of a hair, S'vet. 5. 8-9.

7 anddi, anantam, Kfith. 3. 15, S'vet. 5. 13 ; sandtana, Kath. 5. 6,
Kaivalya 8, etc.

154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

as an infinitely small moment, as it is symbolically repre
sented in consciousness by the instantaneous duration of
the lightning, or of the flash of thought. This is so as
early as Vaj. Saiiili. 32. 2. The principal passage is
Kena 29-30 : — " Concerning it this explanation is given.
That which in the lightning makes it lighten, and men
cry ' ah ' and shut their eyes, — this, that men cry ' ah ' (is
its explanation) in relation to the godhead. Now in
relation to the self. When something enters as it were
into the soul, so that thereby a man is reminded of some
thing in an instant, this idea (is its explanation)."
Further descriptions of Brahman as lightning are found in
Brih. 2. 3. G, 5. 7. 1, Mahan. 1. 8. Taken together, their
aim is to lay stress upon his instantaneousness in time,
that is in figurative language his timelessness.

(3) Brahman is independent of causality. Causality
is nothing else than the universal rule according to which
all changes in the world proceed. Where there is no
change there is no causality. It amounts therefore to an
assertion of Brahman's independence of causality when, as
early as the most ancient Upanishad texts, although they
are not yet able to grasp the conception of causality in the
abstract, all change is denied of Brahman. This is the
case when, in Brih. 3. 8, Brahman is celebrated as "the
imperishable " (aksharam). Only of this is knowledge
possible, as Plato also teaches, while of all that is subject
to the flux of becoming there is merely Sofa, to use Plato's
word, or ignorance, as it is said in S'vet. 5. I.1 The
absolute changelessness (i.e. independence of causality) of
Brahman is very definitely expressed in passages like Brih.

4. 4. 20 :-

As unity we must regard him,
Imperishable, unchanging,
Eternal, not becoming, not ageing
Exalted above space, the great self.

1 ktharam tu avidyd hi, amritam tu ridyd.

BRAHMAN AS INDEPENDENT OF CAUSALITY 155

That no becoming touches the essential reality of things is
taught by Chand. 6. 1. 3 :— "Change (vikdra) is a mere
matter of words, nothing but a name." And in Kath. 2.
14 Brahman is sought for as one that is —

Independent of good and evil,
Independent of becoming and not-becoming,
Independent of past and future,
That thou seest to be such, declare.

And of the " seer " (i.e. Brahman as the knowing subject)
it is said in Kath. 2. 18 :-

The seer is not born, and does not die,

Springs not from any, nor becomes any ;

From everlasting he abides for ever the ancient one,

He does not perish, for it is the body that perishes.

An emphatic repudiation of becoming is contained in a
passage that has been misunderstood by both Indian and
European commentators, Is'a 12-14 :—

Into dense darkness he enters

Who has conceived becoming to be naught,

Into yet denser he

Who has conceived becoming to be aught.

Different is it from coming into being,
Different also from not coining into being ;
Thus have we from the ancient seers
Eeceived the doctrine.

He who knows (as non-existent)
Both becoming and not-becoming,
He passes through both
Beyond death, and has immortality.

That by sambliuti and asambJulti here must be understood
the coming into being and passing away (in place of the
opposition of contraries is put that of contradictories) is
confirmed by Gaudapada also : —

By combating the sainbMti1

A coming into being is repelled ;

" Who could bring him forth ? "

This saying2 shows him to be causeless.3

1 Is'a U. * Brih. 3. 9. 28. 2 Mandukya-Karika 3. 2i

156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

The same thought is elsewhere developed in detail,1 that
the relations of cause and effect (kdranam and kdryam),
source and result (hetu and phalam], perceived and per
ceiving, are unthinkable of the self-existent (Brahman).

The result of all the investigations of the present
chapter is to show that/iThis essential nature Brahman
is and remains completely unknowable. Neither as the
(metaphysical) being (sat), nor as the knowing subject
within us (c'it), nor as the bliss (dnanda) that holds sway
in deep sleep when the opposition of subject and object
is destroyed, is Brahman accessible to knowledge. No
characterisation of him therefore is possible otherwise than
by the denial to him of all empirical attributes, definitions
and relations, — neti, neti, " it is not so, it is not so."
Especially is he independent, as we have shown, of all
limitations of space, time and cause, which rule all that is
objectively presented, and therefore the entire empirical
universe.

"This conclusion is already implied in the first sentence

with which Indian philosophy begins in the Rigveda, in

the thought, namely, of the essential unity of things. For
this unity excludes all plurality, and therefore all proximity
in space, all succession in time, all interdependence as cause
and effect, and all opposition as subject and object.

In another connection2 passages have been already
discussed which assert the absolute unknowableness of
Brahman. Here we append to them merely a beautiful
story which S'ankara3 reports as s'ruti, and which therefore
he derived possibly from a lost or still unrecognised
Upanishad.

When Bahva was questioned by Vashkali, he expounded
the nature of Brahman to him by maintaining silence, as
the story relates. " And he said, ' Teach me, most reverent

1 Msimlftkya-Kftrikii 4. 11-31. * Supra, p. 79 ff.

8 On Brahniasutra, 3. 2. 17.

SOLE REALITY OF BRAHMAN 157

sir, the nature of Brahman/ The other however remained
silent. But when the question was put for the second or
third time he answered, * I teach you indeed, but you do^
not understand ; this atman is silence.' "

V. BRAHMAN AND THE UNIVERSE

1. Sole Reality of Brahman

Brahman is the atman, " the self," is that in men and
in all the objects of the universe which remains over when
.w;e abstract from them everything in them that is not-self,
alien or different. There is however in the whole universe,
alike in heaven and on earth, nothing besides the atman :
— "There is no second outside of him, no other distinct
from him."1 "There is here no plurality at all,"2 and
consequently there can be no question of anything existing
outside of the atman, of a universe in the proper sense of
the term. With the knowledge of the atman therefore
everything is known : — " In truth, he who has seen, heard,
comprehended and known the atman, by him is this entire
universe known," 3 just as with the sounding of the drum,
the conch-horn or the lyre, all the notes, as it were, of
these instruments are already coincidently sounded.4 The
doctrine of the atman is that very instruction, which was
asked for in Chand. 6. 1. 2: — "by which (even) the
unheard becomes (already) heard, the uncomprehended
comprehended, the unknown known " ; the atman is
"that with the knowledge of which this entire universe
becomes known." 5 As from a lump of clay all that
consists of clay is known, from an ingot of copper all
that consists of copper, from a pair of nail-scissors all

1 Brill. 4. 3. 23-30.

2 na iha ndnd asti kinc'ana, Brili. 4. 4. 19, Katli. 4. 10-11.

3 Brih. 2. 4. 5. 4 Brih. 2. 4. 7-9. 5 Mund. 1. 1. 3.

158 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

that consists of iron, — " the change is a mere matter of
words, nothing but a name," — so with the knowledge of
the Tit man all is known.1 The distinguishing essence of
the fire, the sun, the moon and the lightning has vanished,
the change is a mere matter of words, nothing but a
name.2 This was recognised by the ancient seers when they
said : — " No longer now can anyone bring before us any
thing which we have not (already) heard, understood and
known."3 Therefore for him who knows the atman the
unknown is only "as it were" (iva) unknown ;4 there is
only " as it were " a duality,5 " as it were " another,8 "as it
were " a plurality,7 and it happens only "as it were " that
the atman imagines an object or is moved towards it.8
Strictly speaking, such an "as it were" or iva should be
supplied to every page and every line in which the
Upanishads are concerned with something other than the
atman. It is however very easily understood that this
is not always done. And just as Parmenides and Plato,
without thereby involving themselves in self-contradiction,
regard the very universe, whose reality they deny, from
that standpoint of experience which is natural to us all as
though it were real ; so we are not to discover a contradic
tion when the teachers of the Upanishads occasionally
regard and treat the universe as real from the standpoint
of realism, of avidyd, where indeed we all begin and on
which all practical living is based, so long as in the back
ground of consciousness the conviction remains unmoved
of the sole reality of the atman, and thence determines,
even if only tacitly, all the thoughts. Probably however
a contradiction was introduced when and in proportion as
the realistic view implanted in us all by the nature of our

1 ChAiid. 6. 1. 3-5. 2 Chaiid. 0. 4. 1-4. » Clmnd. 0. 4. 5.

4 L'hand. (3. 4. 7. 5 dvaitam iva, Brih. '2. 4. 14. fi Brih. 4. 3. 31.

7 nand iva, Brih. 4. 4. 19, KAlh. 4. 10, 11.

8 dhydyati iva, leldyati iva, Brih. 4. 3. 7.

BRAHMAN AS THE COSMICAL PRINCIPLE 159

intellect so completely gained the upper hand that the
fundamental conception of the Vedanta of the sole reality
of the atman became obscured by it. Wherever this
occurs in the Upanishads the original standpoint of the
Vedanta is abandoned, and another standpoint prevails,
that of the later Sfinkhya system, whose primary origin
we shall have to look for in that realistic tendency of the
mental constitution of man which can never be entirely
suppressed, and whose origin arid gradual accession of
strength within the sphere of the Upanishad doctrine itself
we shall have to consider and trace out in a later connection.
For the moment however we turn aside from this, and
hold fast to the pure and original Upanishad doctrine,
that it is the standpoint of avidyd which we take up
when we proceed now to consider Brahman in his
relations to the universe, (1) as the cosmical principle,
(2) as the psychical principle, and (3) as a personal god
(is'vara).

2. Brahman as the Cosmical Principle
The relation of the first principle of things to created
nature, or to use popular language, of God to the universe,
is a problem which can never be completely solved, for a
solution is excluded by the constitution of our intellectual
powers. In proportion as we attempt to understand that
relation— that is, to conceive it under the categories of
our intellect, space, time and causality — -we fall into an
erroneous, or to put it more mildly into a figurative
representation of the facts ; and in proportion as we
endeavour to rise above a mere figurative representation
we are compelled to relinquish a real understanding.
Four stages may be distinguished in the comprehension
of that problem, which we may describe, at first in general
and with reservation of their special application to India,
as realism, theism, pantheism and idealism.

160 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(1) Realism. — Matter exists independently of God,
and from eternity. God is degraded to a mere world-
fashiouer (S^/uou/^o?), or, so far as creative power is
transferred to matter itself, is altogether set aside, as in
the Saiikhya.

(2) Theism. — God creates the universe out of nothing,
and the latter then has a real existence independently of
God. This is the standpoint of the Old Testament. As
soon as the attempt is seriously made to grasp the relation
of God to the universe, in proportion as this takes place
God becomes more and more entangled in the universe,
until He is completely merged in it and disappears.
Theism degenerates into pantheism, which is its necessary
consequence. The later philosophy furnishes an example.
After Descartes had attempted to formulate in logical
terms the theism of the Middle Ages which was based
on the Old Testament, we see how, under the hands of
his successors Geulincx and Malebranche, God is more
and more absorbed into the universe until finally He
becomes completely identified with it. The same thing
occurs in the pantheism of Spinoza. It is remarkable
that this decisive refutation of that Biblical view of the
universe which originated from Judaism and was adopted
in the Middle Ages was effected by a Jew.

(3) Pantheism. — God creates the universe by trans
forming himself into the universe. The latter confessedly
has become God. Since it is real and also infinite, there
is no room for God independently of the universe, but
only within it. The terms God and universe become
synonymous, and the idea of God is only retained in
order not to break with tradition.

(4) Idealism. — God alone and nothing besides him
is real. The universe as regards its extension in space
and bodily consistence is in truth not real ; it is mere
illusion, as used to be said, mere appearance, as we say

BRAHMAN AS THE COSMICAL PRINCIPLE 161

to-day. This appearance is not God as in pantheism,
but the reflection of God, and is an aberration from the
divine essence. Not as though God were to be sought
on the other side of the universe, for he is not at all
in space ; nor as though he were before or after, for
he is not at all in time ; nor as though he were the
cause of the universe, for the law of causality has no
application here. Rather, to the extent to which the
universe is regarded as real, God is without reality.
That he is real, nay the sole reality, we perceive
only so far as we succeed in shaking ourselves free
theoretically and practically from this entire world of
appearance.

All these stages are represented in the teaching of
the Upanishads, and thus it presents a very varied
colouring of idealistic, pantheistic or theistic shades
without becoming contradictory in the proper sense of
the term. For the fundamental thought, that is held
fast at least as a principle at all stages, even at the
lowest which maintains the independent existence of
matter, is the conviction of the sole reality of the atman ;
only that side by side with and in spite of this conviction
more or less far-reaching concessions were made to the
empirical consciousness of the reality of the universe,
that could never be entirely cast off; and thus the
universe disowned by the fundamental idealistic view of
the sole reality of the &tman was yet again partially
rehabilitated. This was effected either by regarding it
pantheistically as an apparition of the only real atman,
or theistically as created by and out of the atman, but
yet contrasted with it as separate, or realistically as
prakriti occupying from the very beginning an inde
pendent position by the side of the purusha, although
in a certain sense dependent on the latter. Of the
theistic conception, and the realistic that paved the way
ii

1 62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

for the Sankhya, both of which make their appearance
only occasionally, we shall have to speak in a later
connection. Here we propose in the first instance to
enter upon the fundamental idealistic view, in order to
show how by accommodation to the empirical conscious
ness, which regards the universe as real, it passes over
into the pantheistic doctrine, which is the prevailing one
in the Upanishads.

Strongly idealistic, and at the same time expressing
most clearly the peculiar spirit of the Upanishad teaching,
are the passages which declare that with the knowledge
of the atnian all is known,1 and which accordingly deny
a universe of plurality.2 But with this thought a height
was reached on which a prolonged stay was impracticable.
Passages therefore of this kind are comparatively rare.
The universe was still something existing ; it lay there
before their eyes. It was necessary to endeavour to find
a way back to it. This was accomplished without
abandoning the fundamental idealistic principle, by
conceding the reality of the manifold universe, but at
the same time maintaining that this manifold universe
is in reality Brahman.3 Idealism therefore entered into
alliance with the realistic view natural to us, and became
thereby pantheism. This was the case already in the
definition of Brahman as satyasya satyam, " the reality
of reality." 4 The universe is reality (satyam), but the
real in it is Brahman alone. The same is true when in
Chand. G. 1 f. the rise of the manifold universe from the
sole existing one is traced in a realistic manner, ac
companied by the repeated assurance that all these
changes are " dependent on words, a mere name." With

1 Brih. 2. 4. 5, Chand. 6. 1. 2, Mund. 1. 1. 3.

2 iia iha ndiid asti kinc'ana, Brih. 4. 4. 19, K:\th. 4. 10-11.
* sarvam khalu idam Irrahma, Clumd. 3. 14. 1.

4 Brih. 2. 1. 20.

BRAHMAN AS THE COSMIC AL PRINCIPLE 163

this are connected the numerous passages which celebrate
Brahman as the active principle through the entire
universe: — "He is all-effecting, all-wishing, all-smelling,
all-tasting, embracing all, silent, untroubled."1 "The
atman is beneath and above, in the west and in the
east, in the south and in the north ; the atman is this
entire universe." ; The sun rises from him, and sets
again in him.3 All the regions of the sky are his
organs,4 the four quarters of the universe (east, west,
south, north), the four divisions of the universe (earth,
air, sky, ocean), the four lights of the universe (fire, sun,
moon, lightning), and the four vital breaths (breath, eye,
ear, manas), are his sixteen parts.5

Fire is his head, his eyes sun and moon,

His ears the regions of the sky,

The revealed Veda is his voice,

The wind his breath, the universe his heart, from his feet is the

earth,
He is the inmost self in all things.6

In what manner however is the relation of Brahman
to this his evolution as the manifold universe to be con
ceived ? We should say : — As identity, in this following the
later Vedanta, which appeals to the word used to express
attachment.7 But this word is a mere makeshift ; there
is still always a broad distinction between the one
Brahman and the multiplicity of his appearances, nor
were ancient thinkers or indeed any thinkers before
Kant able to rise to the conception that the entire
unfolding in space and time was a merely subjective
phenomenon. Here a further concession must be made
to the empirical consciousness, tied down as it is to space,

1 Chand. 3. 14. 2. * Chand. 7. 25. 2 ; imitated in Mund. 2. 2. 11.

3 Brih. 1. 5. 23, Kfith. 4. 9, and similarly as early as Atharvav. X. 8. 16.

4 Brih. 4. 2. 4. « Chund. 4. 4-9. 6 Mund. 2. 1. 4.

7 Chand. 6. 1. 3 ; Sutra 2. 1. 14, tad-ananyatvam, drambhatia-s'abda-
ddibhyah.

1 64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

time and causality. Brahman was regarded as the cause
antecedent in time, and the universe as the effect pro
ceeding from it ; the inner dependence of the universe
on Brahman and its essential identity with him was
represented as a creation of the universe by and out
of Brahman. We find ourselves at a point where we
apprehend the creation theories of the Upanishads,
unintelligible as they are from the standpoint of its
idealism, from an unconscious accommodation to the
forms of our intellectual capacity. The further elabora
tion of the doctrine of the creation of the universe will
occupy us in the chapter on the Cosmology. Here only
a few passages need be quoted, which set before us the
essential identity of the created universe with the creator.
" Just as the spider by means of its threads goes forth
from itself (tantund uc'c'aret), as from the fire the tiny
sparks fiy out, so from this atman all the spirits of life
spring forth, all worlds, all gods, all living beings."
The illustrations of the spider and the fire are further
elaborated in Mund. 1. 1. 7 and 2. 1. 1 : —

As a spider ejects and retracts (the threads),

As the plants shoot forth on the earth,

As the hairs on the head and body of the living man,

So from the imperishable all that is here.

As the sparks from the well-kindled fire,

In nature akin to it, spring forth in their thousands ;

So, my dear sir, from the imperishable

Living beings of many kinds go forth,

And again return into him.

That the material substance of things also is derived
solely from Brahman is taught in connection with the
illustration of the spider in S'vet. 6. 10, where Brahman
is described as the god " who spiderlike by threads which
proceed from him as material (pradhdnam) concealed

1 Brih. 2. 1. 20.

BRAHMAN AS THE COSMICAL PRINCIPLE 165

his real nature." The last words mean that Brahman, by
not (in a theistic sense) bringing objects forth from him
self, but (in a pantheistic sense) changing himself into the
objects, " has concealed his real nature " (svabhdvato . . .
svam dvrinot). In this sense it is said as early as Rigveda
X. 81. 1 that Vis'vakarman by his entrance into the lower
world was " concealing his original state " (prathamac'had).
Similarly Brih. 1. 4. 7 declares that the atman has
" entered " into this universe " up to the finger-tips, as a
knife is hidden in its sheath, or the all-sustaining fire
in the fire-preserving (wood). Therefore is he not seen ;
for he is divided ; as breathing he is named breath, as
speaking speech, as seeing eye," etc. According to Brih.

1. 6. 3, the atman is amritam satyena c'hannam, " the
immortal, concealed by (empirical) reality " ; and in Brih.

2. 4. 12 it is said: — "It is with him as with a lump of
salt, which thrown into the water is lost in the water, so
that it is not possible to take it out again ; whence how
ever we may always draw, it is salt throughout." The
same thought is developed, perhaps on the basis of this
passage in the narrative of Chand. 6. 13. That objection
was taken to such a method of representation is shown by
the parallel passage Brih. 4. 5. 13, where the words quoted
above from Brih. 2. 4. 12 are altered as follows: — "It is
with him as with a lump of salt, which has no (distinguish
able) inner or outer, but throughout consists entirely of
taste," etc. In a similar way efforts are made in other
passages to show that Brahman by his transformation into
the universe has forfeited nothing of the perfection of his
own nature. As early as Rigveda X. 90. 3 it is said that
all beings are only a fourth of the purusha, while the three
other fourths remain immortal in heaven. The same
teaching is found in Chand. 3. 12. G, the verse from the
Rigveda being repeated, and similarly in the concluding
verse Maitr. 7. 11 ; while according to Brih. 5. 14, one

1 66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

foot of Brahman (under the figure of the Gayatri) consists
of the three worlds, the second of the triple knowledge of
the Veda, the third of the three vital breaths, while the
fourth exalted above the dust of earth shines as the sun.
Still more clearly is it taught already in S'atap. Br. 11.
2. 3 that Brahman, after having created the three worlds
with that which lies above and beyond them, himself
entered " into that half beyond." The infinite nature
of Brahman is also taught in harmony with Atharvav.
X. 8. 29 by the verse Brih. 5. 1 :-

Though a man journey from the perfect to the perfect.
Yet that which is perfect yet remains over and above all.

The same theme is elaborated in greater detail in the
beautiful verses of Kfith. 5. 9-11 : —

The light, as one, penetrates into space,

And yet adapts itself to every form ;

So the inmost self of all beings dwells

Enwrapped in every form, and yet remains outside.

The air, as one, penetrates into apace,

And yet adapts itself to every form ;

So the inmost self of all beings dwells

Enwrapped in every form, and yet remains outside.

The sun, the eye of the whole universe,

Remains pure from the defects of eyes external to it;

So the inmost self of all beings remains

Pure from the sufferings of the external worlds.

3. Brahman as the Psychical Principle

Brahman is the fitman. The first principle of all
things is not, as might be imagined, in part only, but un
divided, completely and as a whole present in that which
I with true insight find within me as my own self, my ego,
my soul. Of the value of this thought which governs all
the speculations of the Upanishads we have formed an

BRAHMAN AS THE PSYCHICAL PRINCIPLE 167

estimate in the Introduction.1 Here we propose to select
from the large number of passages which give expression
to it only so many as are necessary in order to show that
this thought also, precisely as that of Brahman as first
principle of the universe, is in its original purpose ideal
istic, that is, denies the multiplicity of the universe around
us ; but that it receives a gradually increasing realistic
colouring in proportion as we endeavour to conceive it under
the forms of our knowledge, adapted as these are to realism.
Yajfiavalkhya begins his instruction of Maitreyi in
Brih. 2. 4 with the words: — " In truth, not for the
husband's sake is the husband dear, but for the sake of
the self (the soul, dtman) is the husband dear." Similarly
all the objects of the world, — wife, sons and possessions,
the estate of a Brahman or a warrior, worlds, gods, living
beings and the entire universe are dear to us not in them
selves or for their own sake, but only for the sake of our
own self. How this is to be understood is shown by the
conclusion which immediately follows, and which is inferred
from it : — " The self, in truth, should be seen, heard, com
prehended and reflected on, 0 Maitreyi ; in truth, he who
has seen, heard, comprehended and known the self, by
him this entire universe is known." This implies that all
reality is and remains limited to our own self, and that
we know love and possess all things in the universe only
so far as they subsist in our consciousness, as they are
grasped and entertained by our knowing self; there is no
universe outside of the atman, our self, our soul. This
is the standpoint of complete idealism, which denies the
reality of the manifold universe, as it is further expounded
by passages like Brih. 2. 1. 16 and 20, where it is taught
that all worlds, gods and living creatures spring from the
spirit consisting of knowledge (vijndnamaya purusha) like
sparks from the fire ; or, as in Brih. 3. 4 and 3. 5, where

1 Sap. p. 30 f.

1 68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

inquiry is made for the " Brahman that is within all as soul,"
and the answer is given : — " It is thy soul, that is within
all," which as the knowing subject remains unknowable l
and with the consciousness of which the whole universe,
all children, possessions and wisdom vanish into the
nothingness which they really are.2 In the latter passage
an inclination is already revealed towards the realism
which is natural to us all, inasmuch as the existence of the
external world is not denied ; the objects are there, but
as far as their essential nature is concerned they are
nothing but the atrnan alone. Similarly in the important
and well-known passage Chand. 6. 8-16, where a series of
mysterious phenomena and relations of nature and life are
traced back to their unknowable original source, and of
this it is then said in a nine-times repreated refrain : —
" What that subtle being (that unknowable, animan) is,
of which this whole universe is composed, that is the real,
that is the soul, that art thou, 0 S'vetaketu ! "

This doctrine of the sole reality of the atman, the soul
in us, is in opposition to our innate and invincible convic
tion of the reality of the external world that surrounds us,
and this opposition is intentionally brought into relief in
a large number of passages, which with great boldness of
metaphysical insight identify the soul in us as the incon
ceivably small with nature without us as the inconceivably
great. " He is all-effecting, all- wishing, all-smelling, all-
tasting, embracing all, silent, untroubled ; — this is my
soul in my heart, smaller than a grain of rice or barley, or
a mustard seed, than a grain or the kernel of a grain of
millet ; this is my soul in my heart, greater than the
earth, greater than the atmosphere, greater than the
heaven, greater than these worlds."3 "In truth, great
as is this world-space, so great is this space within the
heart ; in it are contained both the heaven and the earth ;

1 Erih. 3. 4. 2 Brill. 3. 5. 3 Chand. 3. 14. 2.

BRAHMAN AS THE PSYCHICAL PRINCIPLE 169

both fire and wind, both sun and moon, both lightning
and stars, and whatever is possessed or not possessed in
this life, all that is therein contained." 1 " Now however
the light which shines there beyond the heaven behind all
things, behind each, in the highest worlds, the highest of
all, that is assuredly this light which is here within in
men."2 The soul, as these passages teach, embraces the
universe ; it is moreover as it were all - pervading, the
antaryamin, the " inner guide " in everything : — " He
who dwelling in the earth is distinct from the earth,
whom the earth knows not, whose body the earth is, who
rules the earth from within, he is thy soul, the inner
guide, the immortal."3 This speculation is then further
extended to several cosmical and psychical relations, and
it is said in conclusion : — " He sees but is not seen, hears
but is not heard, comprehends but is not comprehended,
knows but is not known. There is no seer beside him,
no hearer beside him, no comprehender beside him, no
knower beside him. He is thy soul, the inner guide,
the immortal. All that is distinct from him is liable to
suffering." According to this, the antarydmin, i.e. the
power that dwells and rules in everything, is in its essence
consciousness ; for, as is stated in Ait. 3. 3, all gods, all
substances and all organic beings, " all this is guided by
consciousness, based upon consciousness ; by consciousness
the universe is guided, consciousness is its foundation,
consciousness is Brahman."

Although according to this and many other passages
the first principle of the universe dwells within us as
consciousness or the knowing subject, yet its seat is not
in the head but in the heart. " In truth, this great
unborn self is that among the vital organs which consists
of knowledge (vijndnamaya). Here within the heart is a
cavity, therein he resides who is the lord of the universe,

1 Chand. 8. 1. 3. 2 Chnnd. 3 13. 7. 3 Brih. 3 7. 3.

i >o THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the governor of the universe, the chief of the universe ; lie
is not exalted by good works, he is not degraded by evil
works ; he is the lord of the universe, he is the governor
of living beings, he is the protector of living beings ;
he is the bridge which holds asunder these worlds, and
prevents them from clashing together." l Kaush. 3. 8
may perhaps be derived from this passage : — " He is
the protector of the universe, he is the governor of the
universe, he is the lord of the worlds ; and this is my soul,
that ought men to know." Similarly numerous passages
in the later Upanishads celebrate Brahman as " implanted
in the cavity of the heart." 2 The identity of the atman
in us with the atman of the universe is expressed by the
tat tvam asi of Chand. 6. 8—16, and also by the etad vai
tad, " in truth this is that," of Brih. 5. 4, which is prob
ably an imitation of the other. The same formula is
found twelve times in Kath. 4. 3-6. 1 in a prose passage
appended to the verses. The highest bliss, according to
Kath. 5. 14, consists in the consciousness of this thought.
We quote in this connection only Kath. 4. 12-13 : —

An inch in height, here in the body
The purusha dwells,
Lord of the past and the future ;
He who knows him frets no more, —
In truth, this is that.

Like flame without smoke, an inch in height
The purusha is in size,
Lord of the past and the future ;
It is he to-day and also to-morrow, —
In truth, this is that.

As here the purusha is compared to a smokeless flame,
so in imitation of this passage, in S'vet. 6. 19, it is

1 Brih. 4. 4. 22 ; an indirect reference to Brih. 3. 8. 9.

2 nihito guhdydin, first in Taitt. 2. 1 ; then Kath. 1. 14, 2. 20, 3. 1, 4. G-7 ;
Mu ml. 2. 1. 10, 3. 1. 7, etc.

BRAHMAN AS THE PSYCHICAL PRINCIPLE 171

likened to a fire whose fuel is consumed ; l while in 8 Vet.
5. 9 the contrast between the atman within us and the
atman in the universe is pushed to an extreme : — 2

Split a hundred times the tip of a hair,
And take a hundredth part thereof ;
That I judge to be the size of the soul,
Yet it goes to immortality.

The description of the atman as a smokeless flame in the
heart has been developed in the Yoga Upanishads into
the picture of the tongue of flame in the heart, the earliest
occurrence of which is perhaps Mahan. 11. 6-1 2.3

We saw above how the doctrine of Brahman as the
cosmical principle was represented in accommodation to
the empirical mode of thought as a creation of the
universe in time by Brahman as its first cause. The
same spirit of accommodation lies at the basis of the
form assumed by the doctrine of Brahman as the psychical
principle, viz., that Brahman after having created the
universe enters into it as the individual soul. "This
universe was at that time not unfolded ; but it unfolded
itself in name and form. . . . into it that (atman) entered
up to the finger - tips. . . . this therefore which here
(within us) is the atman is the trace (to be pursued) of
the universe ; jforJnJt the entire universe is known," etc.4
The last words prove that the entrance of the soul, as
described, into the universe which it has created is merely
a metaphor designed to render intelligible the assumed
identity of the soul with the first principle of the universe.
It then however more and more stiffens into nn actual
realism, as the following passages show. " Into citadels
he entered as a bird, into citadels as a citizen."5 "So

1 Similarly Maitr. G. 34, Brahmavidya 9, Nrisiihhott. 2.

2 Surpassed however in Dhyanab. 6.

3 cp. Brahmavidya 10, Yogas'ikha 6, Yogatattva 9-11, Maitr. 6. 30.
4Brih. 1. 4.7. «Briii. 2.5. 18.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

into those three divinities (the three elements) that
divinity entered with this living self, and separated out
from one another names and forms." " After he had
practised self-mortification he created this entire universe,
whatever exists ; after he had created it, lie entered into
it."2 The same conception, even more realistically
depicted, is found as early as Ait. 1. 11, 12: — "And lie
considered, — In what way shall I enter into it? ... so
he split the crown of the head, and entered through
this gate." The later the realism is, the more pronounced
it becomes. Maitr. 2. 6 may serve as an example :
Prajapati created numerous creatures, " these he saw
standing unconscious and lifeless like a stone, motionless
like the trunk of a tree ; therefore he had no joy ; and he
resolved, — I will enter into them, in order to awaken
consciousness within them ; accordingly he made himself
a wind, and determined to enter into them," etc.

We sec therefore the original idealism by reason of
a progressive accommodation to the demands of our
intellectual capacity harden into a realism, which in no
respects falls behind the Semitic.3

4. Brahman as a personal God (is'vara)
The attempt to clothe the fundamental idealistic con
ception which refuses to recognise a universe independent
of the atman, and which lies at the foundation of the
thought of the Upanishads, in intelligible, i.e. realistic
forms, led at first, as we saw, to a pantheism which con
cedes to the empirical consciousness the reality of the
universe, and at the same time asserts the sole existence
of the Atman by declaring that this entire universe is
nothing else than the atman. This assertion was
essentially dogmatic,, and amounted to this, that the
universe as a phenomenal form of the atman took up a

* Ch&nd. 6. 3. 3 2 Taitt. 2. 6. 3 Gen. 27.

BRAHMAN AS A PERSONAL GOD 173

position over - against the atman itself as a second ;
although the endeavour was strenuously made to reconcile
this contradiction by the reiterated assurance that the
universe is identical with the fitman, the infinitely great
without us with the infinitely great within. A further
step in the same direction that tended towards realism is
implied when the atman as first principle is contrasted
not only with the universe, whose outward form it has put
on, but also with the atman within us with which it is
originally identical. Thus is brought into existence the
theism which is found in some of the later Upanishads. It
has not arisen from the ancient Vedic polytheism, but first
makes its appearance long after this has been superseded
by the atman doctrine; the atman is not a "god," deva,
in the ancient Vedic sense, but he is the "lord," is'vara.
The difference of the two modes of representation will
become clear if we first gather together the most im
portant data with regard to the position of the ancient
Vedic gods in the Upanishads.

The existence of the ancient Vedic gods Indra, Agni,
Varuna, etc. is as little denied by the Upanishads as that
of the Greek by Xenophanes. But as by the latter all
the other gods equally with men are subordinated to the
one god (el? #eo? ev re Oeol&i teal dvdpwTroiai /-teyto-To?), so
in the Upanishads all the ancient Vedic gods are created
by the atman and dependent on him. From the atman
proceed, like the sparks from the fire, all worlds, all living
beings, and no less all gods ; l on him all the gods depend ; 2
by him they were created as the guardians of the
universe ; 8 " therefore when the people say of each separate
god, ' Sacrifice to this, sacrifice to that,' (it should be known
that) this created universe proceeds from him alone ; he
therefore is all the gods. This (creation) here is an over
plus of creation of Brahman. Because he created the

1 Brih. 2. 1. 20. 2 Kath. 4. 9. 3 Ait. 1. 1. 3.

174 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

gods higher (than he himself is), and because he as mortal
created the immortals, therefore is it called the overplus
of creation" (atisrishti).1 It is further related2 how the
tit-man created the divine Kshatriyas (Indra, Varuna, Soma,
etc.), Vais'yas (the Vasus, Rudras, Adityas, etc.), and
S'lidras (Piishan), According to Brih. 1. 3. 12-16, it is
the organs of the prana, viz. speech, smell, eye, ear, manas,
which arc by him led beyond the reach of death, and now
continue to exist as the gods Agni, Vayu, Aditya, the
heavenly regions and the moon. The number of the gods
was in Vedic times usually given as thirty- three. The
vague and arbitrary character of this reckoning Yajiiaval-
khya, in Brih. 3. 9. 1, brings home in the following way : —
Why thirty-three? why not three hundred and three?
or three thousand and three? or both together (3306)?
and if we say thirty-three, it might just as well be reduced
to six, or three, or two, or one and a half, or one, which is
the prana. All these numbers, 3306, 33, 6, 3, 2, l£, as
the manifold forces, parts and organs of nature, come back
filially to a unity, — " the prana, thus he said, this men call
Brahman, the yonder (tyad)" The dependence of all
these nature-gods on Brahman is described in the myth of
Kena 14-28: — Agni is unable to burn a blade of grass,
Vayu is unable to blow away a wisp of straw, apart from
the will of Brahman, which is effective in all the gods.
Brahman dwells, according to Brih. 3. 7, as the inner
guide (antarydmin) in all parts of the universe, and no
less in all the corresponding gods. All the gods pursue
their tasks, according to a verse preserved in Taitt. 2. 8
and Kath. 6. 3, " from fear " of Brahman ; and according
to Kaush. 1. 5, even Indra and Prajapati, the door
keepers of the heavenly world, are not able to prevent
the entrance of the soul of him who knows Brahman, or
to turn it back. And just as the power of the gods is

1 Brih. 1. 4. 6. 2 Brih. 1. 4. 11-13.

BRAHMAN AS A PERSONAL GOD 175

dependent on Brahman, so their knowledge also is im
perfect ; they are not in possession from the very beginning
of the knowledge of Brahman.1 Accordingly in Chanel.
8. 7 f . they depute Indra to obtain from Prajapati the
knowledge of the fitman, and for the first time, after they
have obtained it, they worship him in the world of
Brahman as the self; thereupon they possess all worlds
and all desires.2 In this respect the gods have no
advantage over men : — " Whoever of the gods perceived
this ('I am Brahman') he became Brahman; and
similarly of the rishis, and similarly of men. . . . And
to-day also, he who knows this ' I am Brahman ' becomes
this universe ; and even the gods have no power to
prevent his so becoming ; for he is the soul (dtman) of
it."3

These passages make clear the part which the gods
play in the texts of the oldest Upanishads. It is quite
a different matter however, not to be confused with
the other, when individual gods appear occasionally as
symbolical representatives of the atman, as for example
Indra in Brih. 1. 5. 12, Ait. 1. 3. 14, Kaush. 2. 6, 3. 1,
Varuna in Taitt. 3. 1, or Prajapati in Chand. 8. 7f.

The monotheism which meets us in some later Upani
shads has not been developed from this ancient Vedic
polytheism, which still has its echoes in the Upanishads,
but from entirely different premisses. The proof of this
is furnished already by the external fact that the personal
god of the Upanishads, usually and apart from exceptions,4
is called not deva (god), but is', is'a, is'dna, is'vara (the
lord), and in later times commonly parames'vara (the
supreme lord). As these names already show, we must
look for the origin of the theism of the Upanishads in such

1 cp. Brih. 1. 4. 10, 4. 3. 33, 5. 2. 1, Taitt. 2. 8, Kaush. 4. 20, Ksith. 1. 21.

2 Chand. 8. 12. 6. 3 Brih. 1. 4. 10.
4 Such as Kath. 2. 12. 21, S'vet. 1. 8, and frequently.

1 76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

texts as celebrate the atman as the " inner guide "
(antarydmin) in all the parts and forces of nature and of
mankind,1 and which represent all effects in the universe
as the result of his command (pras'dsanam), as in Brih.
3. 8. 9 : — "At the bidding of this imperishable one,
0 Gargi, sun and moon are held asunder," etc. Here it is
the "imperishable" (aksharam, neuter) that is spoken of,
which for the moment is poetically personified. This is
not yet theism, but only the first step towards it.
Similarly in Brih. 4. 4. 22 : — " Here within the heart is
a cavity, therein he dwells, the lord of the universe, the
governor of the universe, the chief of the universe ; he is
not exalted by good works, he is not degraded by evil
works ; he is the lord of the universe, he is the governor of
living beings, he is the protector of living beings ; he is the
bridge that holds asunder these worlds, and prevents them
from clashing together." The same is the case with the
temporary personification of Brahman as the refuge of love,
the lord of love, the lord of brightness ; 2 and in the injunc
tion of Is'a. 1 also, " to sink in god " the universe (is'd
vdsyam idam sarvam) there is still no theism, for the god
who is here referred to is, as the following verses show,8
the atman within us. The doctrine of a personal god,
and with it predestination, appears to be taught also in
Kaush. 3. 8 : — " He is not exalted by good works nor
degraded by evil works, but it is he who inspires to do
good works the man whom he will lead on high out of
these worlds, and it is he who inspires to do evil works the
man whom he will lead downwards. He is the guardian
of the universe, he is the ruler of the universe, he is the
lord of the worlds, — and he is my soul (dtman), that ought
man to know." As the last sentence shows, it is still
man's own self again that determines him to good or evil,
and accordingly there is still no theism. The latter first

1 Brih. 3. 7. 3-23. 2 Chund. 4. 15. 2-4. 3 vv. 6, 7.

BRAHMAN AS A PERSONAL GOD 177

certainly appears, where the atman is contrasted not only
with the universe, but also with the self within us. This
seems evidently to be the case first in the Kftthaka
Upanishad, where in 3. 1 the supreme and the individual
self are distinguished as light and shadow ; and according
to 2. 23 the knowledge of the atman depends upon a kind
of free grace :—

Only by the man whom he chooses is he comprehended,
To him the atman reveals his essence.

Whether Kath. 2. 20 also is to be understood in a
theistic sense depends upon whether we read dltdtu-
prasdddd " by the repose of the elements," or dlidtuh
prasdddd " by the grace of the creator" (having regard
to the majesty of the atman). On the recurrence of the
verse in S'vet. 3. 20 and Mahan. 1.10 it is in any case to be
interpreted in a theistic sense.1

We come next to the S'vetas'vatara Upanishad, the
leading example of the theistic teaching of the Upanishads,
in which God and the soul, though their original identity
is not denied, are yet clearly distinguished from one
another. Thus in S'vet. 4. 6, 7 it is said : — 2

Two bright-feathered bosom friends

Flit around one and the same tree ;

One of them tastes the sweet berries

The other, without eating, merely gazes down.

On such a tree the spirit, depressed,
In its weakness mourns, a prey to illusion,
Yet when it gazes worshipping on the might
And majesty of the other, then its grief departs.

These verses are repeated in the Mund Up. 3. 1. 1, 2,
but since elsewhere this Upanishad breathes a pantheistic
spirit, they are probably borrowed here from the theistic
S'vetas'vatara. But in the latter also traces of the

1 cp. also S'vet. 6. 18, dtma-buddhi-prasddam.

2 Interpreting the verse Rigv. I. 164. 20.

12

1 78 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPAMSHADS

idealism that regards everything besides the atman as
unreal, and of the pantheism that identifies the universe
with the atman, both of which were taken over from the
earlier Upanishads, continue to exist side by side with the
theism ; thereby making its representations often contra
dictory and philosophically unintelligible. This is the case
when in 4. 10 the universe is declared to be mdijd (illusion)
^caused by the supreme god ; although with the reality of
the universe the reality of god also in lost, and only the
atman within us survives as real. Or when in S'vet. 1. 6
the distinction of soul and god (the swan and the drover)
is explained to be illusory, and at the same time the
removal of this illusion appears as a grace of the supreme
god, who is thereby first contrasted with the soul as
another. Hence it follows that the S'vetas'vatara is a
work brimful of contradictions. It is like a codex bis
2)aUm2^cstus. Beneath the^ characters of theism are
discerned, half obliterated, those of pantheism, and under
the latter again those of idealism. Just as in the later
Vedanta, so already in S'vet. 5. 5, 6. 4, G. 11, 6, 12 the task
of bringing works to maturity and apportioning their fruit
to the souls is indicated as the chief function of is'vara ;
although to the Upanishad also this entire conception of the
is'vara, as later in the Vedanta, proves to be merely exoteric,
and is not to be derived with certainty from 3. 7.

The theism of the S'vetas'vatara is adopted and
further developed by the later Upanishads, which
endeavour to establish a connection with the popular re
ligions by attaching the atman of the Upanishad doctrine
to the cult of S'iva (the beginning of which we may
observe in the S'vet. Up.) or of Vishnu. But even in
them the original idealism, which dissolves universe and
god in the atman, reveals itself. This is the case in
Nrisirhhottara-tapaniya Up. 1, where the "fourth" and
highest state of the soul, the turtya, is distinguished from

BRAHMAN AS A PERSONAL GOD 179

its three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, and is
represented as the abyss of the eternal unity, in which
all distinctions of being and knowing vanish, the entire
expanse of the universe is obliterated, " and even is'vara
(the personal god) is swallowed up by the turiya (the
fourth), by the turtya."

SECOND PART OF THE SYSTEM OF THE
UPANISHADS

COSMOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE UNIVERSE

VI. BRAHMAN AS CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE

1. Introduction to the Cosmology

THE sutras of Badaray ana define Brahman as that
janma-ddi asya yata iti, " whence is the origin, etc. (i.e.
the origin continuance and end) of this (universe)." This
definition goes back in the first instance to Taitt. 3. 1:—
" That in truth out of which these creatures arise, whereby
they having arisen live, and into which they at death
return again, that seek thou to know, that is Brahman."
It is to be noted however that in this passage of the
Upanishad there is no mention as in the sutra of an origin
continuance and end of the universe as a whole, but only
of the individual beings. The case would be different
with a still older passage, Chand. 3. 14. 1, if we could
follow S'ankara : — " Assuredly this universe is Brahman ;
it should be worshipped in silence as Tajjaldn." The
word Tajjaldn is a mysterious name of the universe as
identified with Brahman that occurs only here, and it is
explained as follows by S'ankara on' Chand. 3. 14. 1 :—
" From this (tad) Brahman by development into fire, water,
earth, etc. the universe has arisen (jan)\ therefore it is
called taj-ja. So on the reverse path to that by which
it has arisen it disappears (It) into the very same
Brahman, i.e. it is absorbed into his essence ; therefore is

i-

BRAHMAN AS CREATOR 181

it called tal-la. And in the same way finally it is
Brahman in whom the universe at the time of its orioin

o

breathes (an), lives and moves ; therefore is it called tad-
anam. Therefore in the three periods (past, present and
future) it is not distinct from the essential Brahman, since
there is nothing which lies outside of and beyond these."1
When Bohtlingk2 declares this explanation of S'ankara to
be ungrammatical, on the ground that updsita must have
an object, and accordingly proposes to find the secret name
in jaldn alone, he is met by the entirely analogous case
of Kena 31, tadd ha tad-vanam ndma, tad-vanam ity
updsita-vyam ; in other respects no alteration would be
introduced. According to S'ankarajs view therefore we
should have before us already in the name , tajjaldn
( = tad-ja-la-an) a summarising of the three attributes ol
Brahman as creator preserver and destroyer of the
universe. Whether this is correct, whether in so ancient
an Upanishad it is possible to assume already the doctrine
of the destruction of the universe, and whether we ought
not rather here also to think of a simple destruction of
individual beings, will later on become a subject of
investigation. Meanwhile we propose to arrange our
presentation of the cosmology according to these three
attributes of Brahman, and accordingly to treat in order
of Brahman as creator preserver and destroyer of the
universe. When moreover S'ankara asserts in the passage
quoted, and in many others, that the whole doctrine of the
creation is not to be understood in a literal sense, but should
be employed merely to teach the essential identity of the
universe and Brahman, this also needs a fuller investigation
and discussion of the question how far a creation of the uni
verse is possible from the standpoint of the atman doctrine.

1 cp. the consistent explanation which S'ankara gives on Brahmasutra
1. 2. 1, for which see p. 87 of my translation.

2 Berichte der Sticks. Ges. d. W., 1896, p. 159 f.; 1897, p. 83.

1 82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

2. The Creation of the Universe and the Doctrine
of the Atman

We have above in the first part of our work learnt to
recognise a series of descriptions of the creation of the
universe from the Hymns and Brfihmanas, and to point
out as a feature common to many of them that (1) the
original principle, (2) creates matter out of itself, and then
(3) as first-born enters it. We propose in the first place
briefly to survey here the chief passages that set forth this
doc-trine.

Rigv. X. 129: — In the beginning there is only
'that one' (tad ekam). It exists as a dark undulation,
shut in by a shell (apraketam salilam), out of
which by tapas that one was first born as Kama or
Manas (that is to say, according to the conception of
vers. 4).

Rigv. X. 121: — Prajapati begets the primeval waters,
and issues forth from them as golden germ (hiranya-
garbha).

Rigv. X. 81, 82: — Vis'vakarman fashions the worlds
sunk in the primeval slime, i.e. in the primeval waters,
and then issues forth from these waters as the primeval
germ that conceals all the gods.

Rigv. X. 72 : — Brahmanaspati fashions the aditi
(salilam, uttdnapad, sad), and himself issues forth from
it as Daksha.

Rigv. X. 125 : — It is Vac' that at the beginning actuated
the father of the universe, and then was again born in the
waters of the sea, in order to distribute herself over living
beings.

Rigv. X. 90: — From Purusha (as Adipwrusha, Say.)
is born Viraj, and from the latter again Purusha (as
Ndrdyana, the " son of Purusha," or " son of the waters,"
i.e. Hiranyac/arbha).

CREATION AND THE ATMAN 183

S'atap. Br. 6. 1. 1 : — Purusha Prajapati creates the
waters, enters into them as an egg in order to
be born from them, and issues forth from them as
Brahman.

Atharvav. 11. 4 : — Prana begets the universe, and
issues forth from it as first-born (as apdm garblia,
v. 26).

Atharvav. 10. 7. 7, 8 : — Skambha, in whom Prajapati
sustained and nourished the whole universe, entered into
the universe with a part of himself.

Taitt. Ar. 1. 23 : — Prajapati, building up the worlds,
entered as first-born of the creation with his own self into
his own self.

Vaj. Samh. 34. 1-6 : — The mind (manas) includes all
things in itself, and dwells in men as immortal light.

The motive of the conception that dominates all these
passages may be described to be the recognition of the
first principle of the universe as embodied in nature as
a_whole1 but especially and most of all in the sojiL_(the
universal and the^jlndividual soul). Hence the idea arose
that the primeval being createoT~the universe, and then
as the first born of the creation entered into it. This
traditional view we shall find appearing frequently even
in the Upanishads.

In what way however is this possible, since the entire
doctrine of the creation of the universe and of the entrance
of the creator into the universe that he has created is in
contradiction to the atman doctrine of the Upanishads,
strictly interpreted ?

The assertion is frequently made by the Upanishads,
as we saw, — and this is involved in the very conception of
the atman, — that the atman is the sole reality, that_there
can be nothing beside it,_and therefore with the knowledge
qf,.t-.'hp. ftt.Tnn.Ti nil is Tfljnwn. From this point of view no
p of tho. univp.rse hy the &tman can be taught, for

1 84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

there is^i£jinjverso. nnfcsiMp. ofj^j^man But the lofti
ness of this metaphysical conception forbade its main
tenance in the presence of the empirical consciousness
which teaches the existence of a real universe. It was
necessary to concede the reality of the .universe^ and
to reconcile with thisTthe idealistic_dogma_of theCsoleX
jreality _of the atman by asserting that the universe
exists, but isjn truth nothing but the atman. Even
from this standpoint, which declares the identity of
the atman and the universe, no doctrine o£_the__creation

of the universe was possible. It was only by making a

further concession to the empirical consciousness, and
maintaining no more than an actual identity of the
fitman and the universe, never carried out in detail, but
framed on a causal relation between the fitman as first
cause and the universe as its effect, — it was only then
possible and necessary to formulate a theory to explain
how the universe as effect had proceeded from or been
created by the atman. This step involved a further
inevitable consequence. According to the creation
doctrine the universe had come forth from the atman as
another distinct from it. It was Jiecessary to secure its
return into the atman if the original fundamental doctrine
oTjbhejoTFrejdrty of the atman were not to be absolutely
rejected. This motive gave rise to the doctrine that the
fitman as soul (universal and individual soul) had entered
into the universe that it had created, as we find the doctrine
set forth in the Upanishads. It was then possible for the
authors of the Upanishads side by side with their funda
mental idealistic view to maintain in a modified and more
developed form the traditional doctrine of the Rigveda,
according to which the first principle creates the material
universe and then as first-born enters into it. When
therefore the professors of the Vedfinta, Bfidarayana,1

1 Stitra 2. 1. 14.

CREATION AND THE ATM AN 185

Gaudapada,1 and S'ankara,2 maintain that the sacred
writings teach a creation of the universe only by way of
concession to man's faculty of understanding, their asser
tion is not to be entirely rejected. It needs to be modified
only in the one point that this is not a conscious but an
unconscious concession made to the empirical view that
demands a real universe held together by causal connec
tions of space and time ; and with this limitation even the
Upanishads, in spite of their atman doctrine that denies
the existence of the universe, teach its creation by the
atman and the latter' s entrance into it, as the following
passages show : —

Brih. 1. 4. 7 : — " The universe before us was once not
unfolded ; it was then unfolded in name and form ; . . . that
atman has entered into it up to the finger-tips, as a knife
is hidden in a sheath, the all-sustaining (fire) in the fire-
preserving (wood)."

Chfmd. 6. 2, 3 : — " Alone existing, my dear sir, was
this in the beginning, one only without a second. ... It
proposed : — I will become many, will propagate myself ;
thereupon it created the heat." From heat water
proceeds, from water food (i.e. the earth). " That divinity
proposed : — I will now enter into these three divinities
(heat water and food) with this living self (the individual
soul), and unfold thence name and form."

Taitt. 2. 6 : — " He (the atman) desired : — I will
become many, will propagate myself. Accordingly he
practised self - mortification. After having practised
self - mortification he created the entire universe,
whatever exists. After having created it, he entered
into it."

Ait. 1. 1 : — " In the beginning this universe was the
atman alone ; there was nothing else there to strike the

1 MaiicMkya-kfirika 1. 18, 3. 15.

2 On Brahmasfitra 4. 3. 14, and frequently.

1 86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

eye. He deliberated : — I will create worlds ; accordingly
he created these worlds, tho ocean, atmosphere, death, the
waters." Further in 1. 3. 11: — " He deliberated : — How
can this (human frame) exist apart from me ? And he
deliberated : — In what way shall I enter into it ? . . . .
accordingly he split open the crown of the head, and
entered by this door."

As far as the relative age of the passages quoted
is concerned, the order that I have chosen may be
expected to prove the order also of history. Brih. 1.
4. 7 is the least developed. Chand. 6. 2, 3 describes
the process of creation in detail, but recognises only
three elements. Taitt. 2. 1 represents the five elements
as proceeding from the atman. Ait. 3. 3 cites the five
elements, and describes them for the first time
with the later technical term panc'a mahabhutdni ;
the finished picture moreover in Ait. 1. 3. 11 of the
fit-man's entering into man by the seam of the skull
makes this passage appear as the latest among those
quoted.

3. The Creation of Inorganic Nature

In the whole of nature no distinction is so sharply
drawn as that between the inorganic and the organic ; and
this distinction dominates the Indian view of nature also,
in so far as they both, the inorganic no less than the
organic, are derived from the atman, but in quite a
different sense. All organic bodies, and therefore all
plants, animals, men and gods, are wandering souls, are
therefore in essence the atman itself, as it, for reasons
which have still to be considered, entered into this mani
fold universe as wandering individual soul. Inorganic
bodies, on the contrary,1 i.e. the five elements, ether, wind,

1 Named mahdhhAtdni on account of their bulk by Ait. 3. 3, Maitr. 3. 2,
Prunagnihotrop. 4.

CREATION OF INORGANIC NATURE 187

fire, water, earth, though they are ruled by Brahman,1 and
remain under the protection of individual deities,2 yet are
not wandering souls, as are all plants, animals, men, and
gods, but are only the stage erected by Brahman on
which the souls have to play their part. Before we con
sider the origin of the elements from Brahman, and in
the immediately following section of the entrance of
Brahman into them as the soul, a few words of introduction
are necessary on the creation myths of the Upanishads.

It was shown above (pp. 183-186) how it became possible
for the teachers of the Upanishads, in spite of the doctrine
of sole existence which they defended, and which denied
the existence of the universe outside of the atman, by an
unconscious approximation to the empirical view to adopt
the traditional scheme of the creation myths. Thus in
Chand. 4. 17. 1-3, and in a briefer form Chand. 2. 23, a
creation myth is reproduced, in part verbally, which we
have already come to know from Ait. Br. 5. 32 and
S'atap. Br. 11. 5. 8.3 A creation myth is attached to the
conception of the egg of the universe, whose earliest
origin we have found in the " vital force that was enclosed
in the shell,"4 and in the "golden germ";5 and the
progressive development of the same idea met us already
in S'atap. 6. 1. 1 and 11. 1. 6. This myth is preserved
in Chand. 3. 19: — "This universe was in the beginning
not-being ; this (not-being) was being. It arose. Then
an egg was evolved. It lay there a whole year long.
Thereafter it split open ; the two halves of the shell were,
the one of silver, the other of gold ; the silver half is this
earth, the golden is yonder heaven," etc. (On these pre
decessors the representation in Manu 1. 9-13 depends.)

The conception of the egg of the universe appears in

1 Brih. 3. 7. 3-14. 2 Brih. 2. 1. 5-8, 2. 5. 1-10.

3 Deussen, Allyemeine Einleitung u. Philosophic des Veda, pp. 183, 189.

4 Rigv. X. 129. 3. 5 hiranyayarbha, Rigv. X. 121. 1.

1 88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

a more characteristic context together with that of the
prem umla ne purusha l in the creation myth at the
beginning of the Aitareya Upauishad that belongs to
the Rigveda : — " In the beginning the atman alone was
this universe; there was nothing else at all to meet
the eye. He deliberated : — I will create worlds."
Accordingly after he had created the earth and the
atmosphere, the waters above and below, he drew forth
the purusha from the waters, and gave him shape.
Brooding over these waters they opened " like an egg,"
the mouth, nose, eyes, etc. of which are then developed,
and from them the eight psychical organs, and from
these in turn Agni, Vayu, Aditya, etc. as the eight
guardians of the universe, who finally take up their
abode in men as speech, breath, sight, etc. Although
however the human frame is thus animated by the
organs of sense that spring from the purusha, it can only
exist after the creator through the fissure of the skull
(vidriti) has entered into it as individual soul. The
tendency of this myth is clear. The purusha, that in
Rigv. X. 90 had been the first principle, becomes here
a power dependent on the atman ; and similarly only the
organs of man's soul are ascribed to the purusha, but the
soul itself to the atman.

The most original and significant creation myth of
the Upanishads is the representation of the evolution of
the universe from the atman in Brih. 1. 4. Here the
traditional form of the creation myth appears only as
a veil lightly thrown over the whole. The aim is not
to relate a consistent history of the creation, but rather
in a series of loosely connected creation pictures to teach
the absolute dependence of all existing beings on the
atman. Accordingly the perpetual return of created
things into the atman is used to show how the division of

1 $iv. X. 90.

CREATION OF INORGANIC NATURE 189

the universe into male and female, and then into the
different species of animals by the flight of the female
before the male, how the evolution of name and form, and
the entrance of the atman into them, together with the
creation of the castes of the gods and afterwards of men,
etc., how all this signifies only the self-evolution of the
atman to become the manifold universe, and the essential
identity of all its phenomena with the atman. Through
the consciousness " I am Brahman " (aham brakma asmi) l
the atman becomes the universe, " and to this day who
ever knows this ' I am brahman ' he becomes this universe ;
nor have even the gods power to prevent his so becoming.
For he is its soul (atman)." Thus the traditional doctrine
of the creation is preserved only as an external form. It
serves merely to exhibit the sole reality of the atman
under the different phenomena of the universe.

From this lofty standpoint we see the Upanishads
ever turning back to the realism natural to us, in order to
teach in detail a creation of the universe, and of the
elements of which it consists.

Like the Greek philosophers, Philolaus, Plato and
Aristotle, most of the Indian thinkers distinguish five
elements, — ether, wind, fire, water and earth. A
dependence however of the Greek idea on the Indian,
or the Indian on the Greek, is not to be thought of for
this reason, if for no other, that the order of the elements
is different, inasmuch as the Greeks place fire between
ether and air, the Indians air between ether and fire.
Further also because on both sides independently of
one another the simple observation of nature led to
the thought of the five compound states of matter, viz.
the solid, fluid, gaseous, permanently elastic and the
imponderable, as the five component parts of the material
universe, to which correspond, as we shall see, the five

1 Brih. 1. 4. 10.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

specific energies of the organs of sense. The result is
that both in the Greek and in the Indian philosophy we
see the doctrine of the fivefold character of the elements
gradually formed out of simpler conceptions.

The oldest element with the Indians is water. As
early as Rigv. X. 129. 3 the first principle appeared as
a " dark undulation " (apraketam salilam). In Rigv.
X. 121. 9 Prajapati begets "the great sparkling waters."
These again appear in Rigv. X. 82. 1 as the primeval
slime in which in the beginning heaven and earth were
plunged ; and in Rigv. X. 72. 4-6 as the " wave-surge,"
that is identical with Aditi, etc. In the Upanishads also
the conception of the primeval waters still survives.
" The waters are the body of that prana I"1 " This earth,
the air, the heavens, the mountains, gods and men,
domestic animals and birds, vegetables and trees, wild
creatures down to worms, flies and ants, are nothing but
this water under solid conditions, they are all nothing
but this water under solid conditions." 2 In Kaush. 1. 7
also Brahman speaks to the soul that knows itself to
be identical with him : — " The primeval waters in truth
are my universe (as hiranyagarbha), and it is thine."
In Kath. 4. 6 again it is said of the purusha that he
existed before the primeval waters ; and the latter are
to be understood in the following verse 8 by " Aditi the
sustainer of the god that springs forth together with
them to life." It also " dwells in the cavity of the
heart" (in which according to Chand. 8. 1. 3 heaven
and earth are confined), that is the primeval waters also
are a product of the atman dwelling in the heart. There
in, according to Is'fi 4, Mdtaris'van, (i.e. probably the
prana) has already interwoven the primeval waters ;
according to Mahanar. 1. 4 he has sown by water the

1 Brih. 1. 5. 13. * Chand. 7. 10. 1.

* cp. Rigv. X. 72. 5, suprn.

CREATION OF INORGANIC NATURE 191

germ of life on the earth. The cosmogony ,'ilso of Ait.
1. 1 is to be explained on the same principle. It seems
to be especially closely connected with Rigv. X. 82. 1.
There it is said that in the beginning the worlds were
plunged in the ghritam of the primeval waters, and that
the creator, having first fastened the extreme ends (which
could only stand fast out of the waters), spread out
heaven and earth between them. This gives the key
to Ait. 1. 1, where it is said: — "He deliberated: — I will
create worlds, the ocean, the realms of light, death, the
waters (ambho, maric'ir, maram, dpas). That is the
ocean, beyond the heaven ; the heaven is its floor. The
atmosphere is the realms of light. Death is the earth.
The waters are whatever is beneath it." After this
description we have the waters as the two ends of the
universe, above and below, and between them the clear
atmosphere (hence called maric'ir), and the dark earth
(hence dead), i.e. the stirtam and the asurtam rajas of
Rigv. X. 82. 4. By a reference to this passage the
otherwise isolated description of the construction of the
parts of the universe in Ait. 1. 1 seems to find a complete
explanation. The same Upanishad further on l enumerates
the five elements as usually given by later writers.

A further step is taken in Brill. 1. 2. 2, where we find
the one element of the primeval waters replaced by three.
Here also Prajapati forms the water by his song of praise.
From its churning the earth arises, fire from the labour
and heat involved in the movement.

The leading authority for the number three of the
elements is Chand. 6. 2. Here the waters are no longer
the starting-point, but take their place between the
subtler fire and the grosser earth. The tendency to choose
for common subjects mystical terms intelligible only to
the initiate (which in the Brahmasutras is carried to an

1 Ait. 3. 3.

192 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

absurd extreme) is exhibited in the description side by
side with water whose name is retained of fire as tejas
(heat), of earth as annam (food). The evolution of these
three elements from one another and ultimately from the
self -existent, i.e. Brahman, is systematically described
and established : — " He proposed : — I will be many, will
propagate myself. Accordingly he created heat (tejas).
This heat proposed : — I will become many, will propagate
myself. Accordingly it created the waters (dpas).
Therefore when a man feels the heat of pain or perspires,
water (i.e. tears, sweat) is produced from the heat. These
waters proposed : — We will become many, will propagate
ourselves. Accordingly they created food (annam).
Therefore when it rains, abundant food is produced, for
from the waters is produced food for man's eating."
Then after the account of the entrance of the self-existent
as individual soul (jlva dtman) into the three deities that
he has created, i.e. into the elements, there follows next
the order of development from one another, how the self-
existent " made threefold " the elements that he had
created, and alloyed each of them with constituent parts
of the other three. Thus for example it is shown of fire,
sun, moon and lightning, that the red in them consists
of heat, the white of water, the black of food. According
to this the substances recurring in nature are not pure
elementary substances, but compounds of which, as
Badarayana says,1 vais'eshydt tu tadvddas tadvddah ;
which admits of a literal rendering, denominatio jit a
potiori. In this theory of the threefold division of the
primitive elements lies the earliest germ of the later
distinction of pure substances (tanmdtra) and gross
elements (sthfllabhdtdni). This distinction is first drawn
in Pras'na 4. 8, where there are distinguished — " The
earth and the earth-substance (prithivi c'a pritkivimdtrd

1 Sfttr,a 2. 4. 22.

CREATION OF INORGANIC NATURE 193

c'a), the water and the water-substance, heat and the heat-
substance, the wind and the wind-substance, the ether
and the ether-substance." The expressions here used,
prithivimdtrd, apomdtrd, tejomdtrd, vdyumdtrd, dkd-
s'amdtrd, were later comprehended under the term tan-
mdtra, " subsisting from this alone," which is found first in
Maitr. 3. 2, and later on in Pranagnihotrop. 4, Mahop. 1.
(A derivation from tanu-mdtra, as might perhaps be
maintained, is not to be thought of, after what has been
said.) In the verse Manu 1. 27 (which is disconnected
from the context) the tanmatras are referred to as anvyo
mdtrdk, and in the Sankhya philosophy they play an
important part, as will later be shown. Badarayana does
not name them, and S'ankara x mentions them as technical
terms of the Sankhya only to reject them, although in his
doctrine of the subtle body a kindred conception finds a
place. The three elements having been increased to five,
each was then conceived as fivefold instead of threefold, in
such a way, according to the Vedantasara, that half of
each of the fivefold elements was pure, and the other half
was made up of the remaining four elements ; so that e.g'.
natural water consists of a half water together with an
eighth of earth, fire, air and ether. The theory how
ever propounded in Vedantasara 128 in connection with
this triple or fivefold distribution, according to which the
earth can be smelt, tasted, seen, felt and heard, water be
tasted, seen, felt and heard, fire be seen, felt and heard, the
wind felt and heard, and the ether merely heard, must not
be regarded as suggesting it. For this theory implies not
the compounded but the uncompounded elements, which
as they proceed forth from one another preserve the
attributes of the elements from which they have pro
ceeded (the wind can be heard as well as felt, because it
has proceeded from the audible ether). On the contrary,

1 In his commentary on 2. 2. 10, 14.
13

194 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the theory is opposed to the triple or fivefold distribu
tion, since for example the fivefold ether, for the very
reason that the four other elements are intermingled in it,
can no longer be merely audible, but must be capable
also of being felt, seen, tasted and smelt. Beyond how
ever the observation that in all of them there are traces
of all,1 we were able to indicate, as suggesting the triple
or fivefold distribution, only the fact that the human
organism, although it takes up nothing but simple
substances as food, yet assimilates from them all three
elements, food water and heat, which according to the
description attached to the threefold distribution of the
elements in Chand. 6. 5 are requisite for its growth.

A great advance on the passage discussed,2 which
represents only three elements, viz. — fire water and earth,
as proceeding forth from Brahman, is found in the later
insertion of ether (or space, dkds'a) and wind (vdyu),
which in earlier times, as we saw, had themselves been
regarded as symbolical representations of Brahman, as the
two subtlest elements between Brahman and fire. By
this means the number of five elements was obtained, and
this with few exceptions was assumed by all the later
philosophers of India. The earliest passage that re
presents the five elements as proceeding forth according
to the scheme laid down in Chand. 6. 2, the first from
Brahman and each in succession from its immediate
predecessor, is Taitt. 2. 1 (enumerations like Brih. 4. 4. 5
do not enter into consideration), a passage which has
acquired a fundamental meaning in Indian philosophy :—
" From this atman, in truth, has the ether (space) arisen,
from the ether the wind, from the wind the fire, from the
fire the water, from the water the earth." This number
of five elements corresponds, as we shall see later, to the

1 cp. irav (v iravrl /zf/i?xd«t, Anaxagoras in Ar. Phys. 1. 4. 187, 6 1.

2 Chand. 6. 2 f

ORGANIC NATURE 195

number of five organs of knowledge (hearing, touch,
sight, taste, smell) which has suggested if not the primary
enunciation, yet the definite arrangement of the five
elements. Each element has its assigned quality (sound,
resistance, colour, flavour, odour), and besides this, as
already remarked above, the qualities of those elements
out of which each has proceeded. Later passages of the
Upanishads, in which the five elements are partly enumer
ated, partly referred to, are Ait. 3. 3 (still unarranged) ;
SVet. 2. 12, 6. 2jcp. also Kath. 3. 15); Pras'na 6. 4,'
Maitr. 3. 2, 6. 4, Atma 2, Pinda 2, Pranagnihotra 4.

4. Organic Nature

The essential identity of the universe with Brahman
is thus represented as a creation of the universe by
Brahman with a view to suit man's intellectual capacity,
which is adjusted to relations of cause. According to
the meaning of the Indian word for creation, srishti, this
is to be thought of as a discharge, a setting free or
emission, an emergence therefore of the universe from
Brahman ; although this is really in contradiction with
the fundamental dogma of the sole reality of Brahman.
The doctrine therefore of the creation of the universe, if
this last were not to be contrasted with Brahman as a
second and foreign, demanded for its completion the idea
that Brahman himself having created the universe entered
into it as soul. " Into it (the universe) that one
(the atman) has entered up to the finger-tips." 1 " There
upon that deity (Brahman) entered into these three
deities (the elements) with this living self (jiva atman,
the individual soul), and separated out thence name and
form.": " After he had created it, he entered into it."3
' Thereupon he cleft asunder here the crown of the head,
and entered through this gate."4 Brahman creates the

1 Brih. 1. 4. 7. 2 Cliand. 6. 3. 3. 3 Taitt. 2. 6. 4 Ait. 1. 3. 12.

196 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

organisms as citadels (puras), and then enters into them
as citizen (purusha, i.e. as the soul), cp. Brih. 2. 5. 18 :—

As citadels he created the bipeds,
As citadels the quadrupeds also ;
Into the citadels he entered as a bird,
Into the citadels as citizen.

All living creatures, and therefore all plants, animals,
men and gods, are abodes of this character, into which
Brahman has entered as individual soul.

From him the gods in their many forms have sprung,
The blessed ones also ; from him, men, cattle and birds,
Inspiration and exspiration, rice and barley,

as it is expressed in Mund. 2. 1. 7, echoing Rigv. X. 90. 8
and Atharvav. XL 4. 13. Accordingly all living creatures
are Brahman : — " This (consciousness, i.e. the atman)~is"
Brahman, this is Indra, this is Prajapati, this isjall the gods ;
it is the five elements, earth, 'wind, ^ther, water, lights ;
it is the tiny living creatures, and whatever is similar to
them ; it is the seed of one and another kind ; it is that
which is born of an egg or the mother's womb, of sweat or
from a shoot ; it is horses, cattle, men, elephants, — all that
lives, all that walks or Hies, all that is motionless."1 By
the "motionless" (sthdvaram) the plant world is to be
understood. On the entire passage S'ankara remarks : —
" Thus in the individual bodily forms from Brahman down
to a blade of grass (brahmddi-stambaparyanteshu, an
expression frequently employed later) Brahman assumes
this or that name and form." A division of organic beings
into three classes, " born from the egg, born alive, and
born from the germ," is found as early as Chand. 6. 3. 1,
to which the foregoing (later) passage adds as a fourth
class, " born from sweat" (insects and the like). In each
of these phenomenal forms the entire Brahman dwells.

1 Ait. 3. 3.

ORGANIC NATURE 197

Brahman is called Sdman, "because he is equivalent
(sama) to the ant, the gnat, the elephant, these three
world-regions, to this entire universe."1 Chand. 6. 11. 1
furnishes an example of the animation of plants in the
case of the tree which exists " penetrated through and
through by the living self (jiva dtman, the individual
souls), exuberant and joyful." That the migration of soul
extends to the plant world also is taught by Kath. 5. 7 :—

The one enters into the maternal womb,
Incorporating himself in bodily form,
Into a plant another moves,
Each according to his works or knowledge.

According to the above the migration of souls extends to
the world of the gods : — " As a sculptor takes the material
from a statue, and chisels therefrom another newer fairer
form, so this soul also, after it has shaken off the body
and rid itself of ignorance (temporarily), creates for itself
another newer fairer form, whether of the fathers or the
Gandharvas or the gods or Prajapati or Brahman or other
beings."2 The coming forth of the creatures from
Brahman, after their entrance into him (in deep sleep and
in death), like the nectar of the flowers into the honey or
the rivers into the ocean, takes place unconsciously :—
" Therefore in truth none of all these creatures when
they come forth again from the self-existent one know
that they come forth again from the self-existent one ;
that whether they were tiger here or lion or wolf or boar
or worm or bird or gadfly or gnat, whatever they may
have been, thereto are they again fashioned."3 Cp. the
similar and perhaps borrowed enumeration in Kaush. 1. 2
— " Whether in this world he be worm or fly or fish or
bird or lion or boar or stinging insect or tiger or man,
whatever he was formerly, in this or that place is he reborn,
each according to his works or according to his knowledge."

1 Brih. 1. 3. 22. 2 Brih. 4. 4. 4. 3 Chand. 6. 10. 2.

198 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

A mythical description of the origin of human and
animal kinds is given in Brih. 1. 4. 3-4. The atman is
originally neither male nor female, but (as in the myth of
Aristophanes in Plato Symp: 189 C seq.) an undistin
guished union of the two, which is cleft asunder, and in
the act of begetting attains to a fresh unity. Thereupon
the female flees, and hides herself successively in the
different species of animals, the cow, horse, ass, goat,
sheep, down to the ant ; the atman however pursues her
through all the forms, and thus begets individual creatures
of each kind. We might be tempted to read a deeper
meaning into this myth. The male principle would be
the will which desires to manifest itself, the female the
essence of the forms (the Platonic idea) which although
derived from the will is yet distinct from it and flees from
it, until the creative will gains the mastery, in order in it
to give expression to all its own being. In any case the
myth asserts that all animal and human forms are essenti
ally similar, and are alike incarnations of the atman.

In what follows l is described how the atman creates
above and beyond himself the various classes of gods :—
" Because he created the gods to be higher (than he himself
is), and because he being mortal created the immortal,
therefore is he called the overplus of creation (atisrishti)"
This much at least is implied, that the atman incorporated
in man contains in himself the principle of all higher
worlds and beings.

5. The Soul of the Universe (Hiranyagarlha,

Brahman)

The soul of the universe is related to the body of the

iuiiver.se as the individual soul to its body. This as

denoted by Brahman (mase.), distinguished from Brahman

(neut.) the first principle, or even by Hiranyagarbha9wbich

i urih. i. 4. 6, 11-15.

THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE 199

according to Eigv. X. 121. 1 came forth as the first-born
of creation from the primeval waters which were created
by the first principle. Because it is the first principle
itself which appears in its creation as first-born, therefore
the latter also is denoted by Brahman with change of
gender and accent, as though it were Brahman personified.
In the texts of the older Upanishads this conception is
but little developed. In Brih. 4. 4. 4, as quoted above,
Brahman (unquestionably to be taken as masc.) also
appears together with Prajapati and the other gods as an
example of a soul subject to transmigration. In Ait. 3. 3
Brahman is named at the head of the living beings, in
whom the atman manifests himself.1 In Kaush. 1 again,
where this Brahman conceived as a person receives the
souls as they arrive in the other world, his identity with
Hiranyagarblia is indicated by the closing words : — " The
primeval waters, in truth, are my universe, and they are
thine."2 Otherwise in older texts the personal Brahman3
is mentioned only as the bearer of the divine revela
tion4 who communicates it to mankind. So in Chand.

3. 11. 4, 8. 15, Mund. 1. 1. 1-2, and frequently in later
Upanishads.

This conception of the first-born of creation as the
original source of all wisdom is carried further first in the
S'vetas'vatara Upanishad (which in general inclines towards
a personification of the divine), and here it is described as
the Brahman, HiranyagarWia the "golden germ/' or even
in one passage 5 with a poetic and metaphorical use of the

1 In this passage also it is natural to read esha brahmd instead of esha
brahma, as it is printed by an oversight in Ait. Ar. 2. 6. 1. 5, p. 299. 3 ; cp.
also the words of Say ana that immediately follow : — anena pul-lingena
brahmas'obdena l Hiranyagarbhah samavartata agre ' ity-ddi-s'dstra-prasiddhah
prathamah s'ariri mvakshitah.

2 Kaush. 1. 7.

3 Or occasionally in his place Parameshthin or Prajapati, e.g. Biih. 2. 6. 3,

4. 6. 3, 6. 5. 4.

4 As Vena before him, cp. Allgemeine Einleitung, p. 252 f. 6 5. 2.

200 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

word as the " red wizard," kapila rishi,1 an expression
that has led many into the mistaken belief that here, in
a Vedic Upanishad, Kapila the founder of the Sankhya
system was named as the first-born of creation ! Had
the author of our Upanishad, so strongly opposed to all
dualism and atheism, known him (which we do not
believe), he would have assuredly characterised him with
altogether different epithets. The opinion that Kapila is
here named is only possible so long as the passage is
isolated and treated without regard to the connection of
the Upanishad as a whole, which in four other passages
gives expression to the very same thought that occurs
here. It celebrates Rudra (S'iva), in whom it sees the
primeval being,as the original source of all wisdom : — " from
him wisdom emanated at the very beginning";2 "he is
called the primal purusha, the great one" ;3 it is he "who
created the god Brahman in the beginning, and who com
municates to him the Vedas also";4 "who formerly begat
Hiranyagarbha" ;5 "who himself saw Hiranyagarbha arise";6
and with reference to the last passage it is then said :—
" He who in spirit went pregnant with that first-begotten
red wizard (kapilam rishim),7 and saw him born."8 The
word tarn pointing back, and the expression jdyamdnam
c'a pas'yet, compared with pas'yata jdyamdnam 4. 12,
assuredly place the reference to the latter passage, and
consequently to Hiranyagarbha, beyond doubt.

Of later Upanishads mention must be made that accord
ing to Narayana 1 Brahman originates from Ndrdyana,
and that according to Atharvas'iras 6 the egg of the
universe originates from Rudra, according to Maha 3
from Narayana, and Brahman from this in turn. He is
also indicated as the .source of knowledge in Pinda 1,

1 i.e. red like gold. 2 S'vet. 4. 18 ; cp. Brih. 2. 4. 10.

8 ayryah purusho mahtin, 3. 19 ; cp. mahdn dtmd, Kath. 3. 10, G. 7.

4 6. 18. 5 3. 4. "4.12. 7 Mentioned in 3. 4 and 4. 12. 3 5. 2.

THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE 201

Garuda 3, and (under the name Hiranyagarbha) Malia
4. In contrast with the self-conscious jiva (the individual
soul) Hiranyagarbha is described in Nrisimhott. 9 as " self-
conscious of all " (sarvdhammdnin).

To the series of primeval beings, primeval waters, and
first-born (Brahman, Hiranyagarbha) there corresponds
the description of purusha, avyaktam, and mahdn dtmd
given after abandoning the mythological form in Kath. 3.
10-11,6. 7-8, as the three earliest principles. Here, in con -
trast with the individual atman, the mahdn dtmd (the great
self, corresponding to the mahdn purusha of S'vet. 3. 19),
is the soul of the universe, i.e. the " self-conscious of all "
Hiranyagarbha. Buddhi is still subordinated to the mahdn
dtmd in Kath. 3. 10. A combination of the two leads
later on to the cosmical intellect (mahdn, buddhi) of the
Sankhya philosophy. On other lines the vovs of the Neo-
platonists that emanates from «/, just as the " pure knowing
subject " (the eternal eye of the universe) of the philosophy
of Schopenhauer, corresponds to the cosmical intellect as
sustainer of the universe (Hiranyagarbha, Mahdn). For
the metaphysical comprehension of the universe this idea
is indispensable. We know (and the Indians knew also
as early as Brih. 2. 4. 5) that the entire objective universe
is possible only in so far as it is sustained by a knowing-
subject. This subject as sustainer of the objective universe
is manifested in all individual subjects, but is by no means
identical with them. For the individual subjects pass
away,1 but the objective universe continues to exist without
them ; there exists therefore the eternal knowing subject
also (Hiranyagarbha) by whom it is sustained. Space
and time are derived from this subject. It is itself accord
ingly not in space and does not belong to time, and there
fore from an empirical point of view it is in general non
existent ; it has no empirical, only a metaphysical reality.

1 "After death there is no consciousness," Brih. 2. 4. 12 ; cp. 3. 2. 12.

202 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

VII. BRAHMAN AS PRESERVER AND RULER

1. Brahman as Preserver of the Universe

Since in reality the atman alone exists, and the universe,
so far as it has a general existence, is essentially only the
atman, it follows that the things of this universe, so far as
we may concede to them a reality at all, can only hold it
in fee from the atman. They are related to the latter as
the sparks to the fire whence they leap forth, and with
which they are essentially identical in nature : — " As the
tiny sparks leap forth from the fire, so from this atman all
vital spirits spring forth, all worlds, all gods, all living
creatures/' 1 This illustration is expanded in greater detail
in Mund. 2. 1. 1 :—

As from the well-kindled fire the sparks,
Essentially akin to it, leap forth a thousandfold,
So, my dear sir, from the imperishc*',!:
The varied living creatures come forth,
And return into it again.

All the things of the universe are, as this passage asserts,
" essentially akin to it," 2 are the atman himself, and it
is he alone who lies outspread before our eyes as the
entire universe : —

Fire is his head, sun and moon his eyes,

His ears the regions of the sky,

His voice is the revelation of the Veda,

Wind is his breath, the world his heart, from his feet arises the earth,

He is the inner self in all creatures.3

How the one atman is expanded into the manifold
universe remains a mystery, and can only be explained by
illustrations. Thus in Chand. f>. ] 2 the teacher causes a
fruit of the Nyagrodha tree (whose shoots grow downwards

1 ttrih. 2. 1. 20 ; cp. Kaush. 4. 20.

2 sartipa, or war&pa, "having its form." 3 Muncl. 2. 1. 4.

BRAHMAN AS PRESERVER 203

and strike new roots in the earth, so that a whole grove
springs up from one tree), to be brought and opened, and
after the student has found in it only a quite small kernel,
and within this nothing at all, the teacher addresses him :
— " The subtle essence, which you do not observe, my dear
sir, from this subtle essence in truth this great Nyagrodha
tree has sprung up. Be confident, my dear sir, whatever
this subtle essence is, of which this universe is a sub
sistence (a 'having this as its essence/ aitaddtmyam), that
is the real, that is the soul, that art thou, 0 S'vetaketu."

The expansion of the unity into plurality is elucidated
also by the frequently misunderstood comparison of
Kath. 6. 1 :-

With its root on high, its shoots downwards,
Stands that eternal fig-tree.

All who here take mtila in drdhvamdla as plural, and
render "die Wurzeln," "the roots," " les racines," etc.,
have failed to grasp the meaning of the comparison, which
consists precisely in showing how from the one Brahman
as root the multiplicity of the phenomena of the universe
arises. The universe therefore is likened to an as'vattha
tree, in the case of which, like our own linden, from the
one root the rich variety of its branches and shoots springs.
The difference is that in the as'vattha which represents
the universe the one root Brahman is above, and the
many shoots of its manifestations are here below on the
earth. It is altogether misleading to think here of the
Nyagrodha tree (ficus indica), which sends its shoots
into the earth where they strike new roots. The as'vattha
(ficus religiosa) is entirely distinct from it in growth and
foliage. It is interesting to see that the passage of the
Kathaka discussed is to all appearance already referred to
in S'vet. 3. 9.1 When it is said in this passage : — " rooted

1 As also Mahanar. 10. 20.

204 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in heaven like a tree the One stands," l the explanation is
found in the passage Kath. 6. 1, and only there.

From the universal diffusion of the atman its omni
presence in the phenomenal forms of the universe results,
as is described in Kath. 5. 2, where use is made of the
verse Rigv. IV. 40. 5 :2—

In the ether he is the swan of the sun, in the air Vasu,
The priest at the altar, the guest on the threshold,
He dwells in man and at a distance, in law, in space,
He as supreme Right springs forth from the waters, from cattle, right,
and the hills.

With a reference to the verse Vfij. Sariih. 32. 4, the
divine omnipresence is depicted in S'vet. 2. 16—17 : —

He is god in all the regions of the universe,
Born of older time and in the body of a mother ;
He was born, and will be born,
Is present in men, and omnipresent.

The god, who is in the fire and in the water,
Who has entered into the entire universe,
Who dwells in vegetables and in trees,
To this god be honour, be honour !

It is a consequence of the omnipresence of the atman
that all creatures share in the bliss which is his essence
(sup. p. 140 if.) : — " From a small portion only of this bliss
other creatures have their life " ; 3 " for who could breathe,
who live, if that bliss were not in the akas'a ; for it is he
who creates bliss."4 Therefore longing for the atman is
innate in all beings, and equally for him who knows him
self as the atman: — "His (Brahman's) name is 'longing
for him ' (tadvanam), as ' longing for him ' ought he to be
worshipped. He who knows himself as such, for him
assuredly all beings long."6

1 cp. also the tree of the universe in S'vet. G. 6.

2 = Mahftnfir. 10. 6, cp. the further references there.

3 Brih. 4. 3. 32. 4 Taitt, 2. 7.
6 Kena, 31 ; cp. the saying of Aristotle, nivd df

BRAHMAN AS PRESERVER 205

Every effect in the universe is wrought by the
fitman : — " It is he who causes the man whom he will lead
on high from these worlds to do good works, and it is he
who causes the man whom he will lead downwards to do
evil works." l Even the gods do their work only by virtue
of the power which he confers on them ; no blade of grass
can be consumed by Agni, or swept away by Vayu, apart
from the will of Brahman.2

The most beautiful picture of the omnipotence of the
imperishable one, i.e. the atman, is found, partly de
pendent on the hymn to Prajapati in Kigv. X. 121, in
Yajfiavalkhya's discourse with Gargi, Brih. 3. 8. 9 :—

" At the bidding of this imperishable one, 0 Gargi,
sun and moon are kept asunder ; at the bidding of this
imperishable one, 0 Gargi, heaven and earth are kept
asunder ; at the bidding of this imperishable one, 0
Gargi, the minutes and the hours are kept asunder, the
days and nights, the fortnights, the months, the seasons
and the years ; at the bidding of this imperishable one,
0 Gargi, the streams run from the snow-mountains, some
to the east and others to the west, whithersoever each
goes ; at the bidding of this imperishable one, 0 Gargi, men
praise the bountiful givers, the gods desire the sacrifice!1,
the fathers the offerings to the dead."

This passage, in which all dispositions in space and
time, as well as every effect in nature and every desire of
men, gods, and manes are ascribed to the atman, has been
often imitated. The comparison of the atman in Brih.
4. 4. 22 3 to a setu, a word that denotes not only the
(connecting) " bridge," but also the (separating) " dike,"
depends probably upon its first part which speaks of the
power of the atman to keep asunder : — " he is the Lord
of the universe, he is the ruler of living beings, he is the
protector of living beings ; he is the bridge which (the

1 Kaush. 3. 8. 2 Kena, 17-23. 3 Quoted in Maitr. 77.

206 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

dike which) keeps asunder these worlds, to prevent their
clashing together." The last words recur in Chand. 8. 4. 1 :
'The atman, he is the bridge (the dike) that keeps
asunder these worlds to prevent their clashing together."
When however it is further said :— " This bridge neither
day nor night cross, nor old age, nor death, nor suffering,"
etc., we have, with a sudden change of the point of view,
in place of the dike that separates the relative parts of the
universe, a bridge that connects the present with the future
world. And this circumstance affords probably a reliable
proof of the important conclusion that the similarly sound
ing words are derived from Brih. 4. 4. 22, and their original
meaning being lost were reproduced in Chand. 8. 4. 1. \he
conception thus modified of the bridge of immortality is
then further taken over, apparently from Chand. 8. 4. 1,
by S'vet. G. 19 and Mund. 2. 2. 5. The entire preceding
paragraph in Mund. 2. 1 is in reality an interweaving of the
passage quoted l with Rigv. X. 90 and other additions.2

2. Brahman as Ruler of the Universe
When it is said in the words quoted from Brih. 4. 4. 22,
and also in Kaush. 3. 8 (probably in imitation of this
passage):- "He is the protector of the universe, he is the
ruler of the universe," two things are implied: (1) that
the atman as protector of the universe maintains things
in their condition. This point has been already dis
cussed, — and (2) that he as ruler of the universe guides
the creatures in their action. For this latter statement
the principal chapter to be considered, together with
several that have been already quoted, is Brih. 3. 7, which
treats of the atman as the antarydmin, i.e. the " inner
guide." Yajnavalkhya begins his instruction on this
subject in Brih. 3. 7. 3 with the words:— " He who
dwelling on the earth is distinct from the earth, whom

3. 8. 2 See Deussen, Upan., p. 660 f.

BRAHMAN AS RULER 207

the earth knows not, whose body the earth is, who rules
the earth from within, he is thy soul, the inner guide,
the immortal." What is here asserted of the earth is
then further affirmed, with continual repetition of the
same formula, of eleven other natural phenomena (water,
fire, atmosphere, wind, sky, sun, heavenly regions, moon
and stars, ether, darkness and light), then of all living
creatures, and finally of the eight organs (breath, speech,
eye, ear, manas, skin, intellect, seed) ; all these natural
phenomena, living creatures, and organs are thus the body
of the atman, but are distinct (antara) from him, do not
know him, and yet are ruled by him from within. The
passage also is frequently used in the sequel. This is
especially the case in Mandukya 6, and in its reproduc
tion in Nrisimhap. 4. 1, Nrisimhott. 1, Ramott. 3; also
Brahmop. 1 and Bashkala. A (worthless) definition of
the Antaryamin is given in Sarvopanishatsara No. 19 : —
" When the atman as the cause of the natural constitution
of compounds endowed with the supreme (conscious
ness) etc., appears in all bodies, like the string threaded
through the store of pearls, he is then called the inner
guide" (antarydmiri). In the Vedantasara § 43 the
antarydmin is identified with fs'vara. A similar place
is held by it in the system of Ramanuja.

To the antarydmin of Brih. 3. 7 there corresponds
in the " honey-doctrine " of Brih. 2. 5 the "mighty im
mortal spirit" (tejomaya amritamaya purusha), who
dwells in all cosmical and psychical phenomenal forms, and
therefore renders possible their mutual influence. Here
also the valuable fundamental thought is presented in a
form which for us has little attraction, in that the same
stereotyped formula is repeated fourteen times in succes
sion, a different idea being employed each time : — " This
earth," so the section begins, " is the honey of all living
creatures, is the honey of all living creatures ; but that which

208 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

on the earth that mighty immortal spirit is, and that which
in relation to the self that corporeal mighty immortal spirit
is, it is even that which is the soul (dtman) here. This is
the immortal, this is Brahman, this the universe." The same
which is here affirmed of earth and body is then further
affirmed, with invariable repetition of the same formula, of
water and seed, fire and speech, wind and breath, sun and
eye, etc. The eye is nourished (exists) by the sun, and the
sun by the eye (it would not be there if no eye beheld it),
and this mutual dependence is only possible because in both
the same mighty immortal spirit, i.e. the atman, dwells.1

By the side of these leading passages it will be
sufficient merely to make brief mention of the twelve or
sixteen purushas put forward as Brahman by Balaki
Gfirgya in Brih. 2. 1, Kaush. 4, with which Ajatas'atru
contrasts the atman as he " who is the creator of all
those spirits, whose work this universe is."2 Just as the
eight purushas regarded as the atman by Vidagdha
Sakalya in Brih. 3. 9. 10-18, 26 (corporeality, desire, the
sun, hearing, the shadow, the mirror, water, the son), with
which Yajfiavalkhya contrasts the " spirit of the Upani-
shad doctrine " (aupanishada puruska), " who impelling
asunder these spirits, and driving them back, steps over
and beyond them," i.e. who spurs them on to their work,
recalls them from it, and is pre-eminent over them.3

3. Freedom and Constraint of the Will

In connection with the doctrine of Brahman as ruler

of the universe, we propose briefly to consider the question

of the freedom and constraint of the human will. Since

the entire universe, so far as in general it has any exist-

1 In the introduction to our translation of this paragraph (Upan., p. 420)
we have already called attention to the similar teaching of Kant of the
"affinity of phenomenal forms," which is possible only through the
" synthetic unity of apperception," i.e. through the knowing subject.

2 Kaush. 4. 19. 5 Brih. 3. 9. 26.

FREEDOM OF THE WILL 209

ence, is only the self-manifestation of the atman, there
can be as little question in the Upanishads as with Spinoza
of a freedom of the will within the range of nature. Such
a freedom would assume a different character of the atman.
The standpoint of the Upanishads therefore is a rigid
determinism : l — " Man is altogether fashioned out of desire
(Mma) ; according to his desire is his discernment (kratu) ;
according to his discernment he does his work (karma)"2
" At the bidding of this imperishable one, 0 Gargi, men
praise the bountiful givers, the gods desire the sacrifice!-,
the fathers the offerings to the dead."3 They all, men,
gods and fathers, cannot act otherwise than is in harmony
with their nature. " For just as men here below pursue
the aim after which each aspires, as though it were done
at command, whether it be a kingdom or an estate, and
live only for that (so in their aspiration for heavenly
reward they are the slaves of their desires)." 4

The words that immediately follow stand in sharp
contrast to this statement. Just as Kant, after having
in the most decisive manner affirmed the empirical con
straint of the will by the eclipse of the sun which
may be calculated beforehand, forthwith asserts in the
very same line " that man is free," 5 so it is said further
on in the passage quoted :— " Therefore he who departs
from this world without having known the soul or those
true desires, his part in all worlds is a life of constraint ;
but he who departs from this world after having known
the soul and those true desires, his part in all worlds is
a life of freedom."6 The meaning of this contrast is
evident ; as sharers in the continuity of nature we are,
like it, subject to necessity; but we are free from it as

1 Brili. 4. 4. 5.

2 Compare the similar remark in S'atap. Br. X. 6. 3, and Chand 3 14 1
* Brih. 3. 8. 9. 4 Chand. 8. l.Y

5 Knt. d. prakt. Vernunft, p. 120, Kehrb.

6 Chand. 8. 1. 6 ; cp. the similar statements in Chand. 7. 25. 2, 8. 5. 4.

14

210 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

soon as, by virtue of the knowledge of our identity with
the atman, we are set free from this continuity of nature.
That the atrnan is exempt from the constraint of causality
we have already seen (p. 154 ff. ). Each of us is this eternally
free atman. We do not first become the atman, but we
are it already, though unconscious of the fact. Accord
ingly we are already free in reality, in spite of the absolute
necessity of our acts, but we do not know it. " Just as
he who does not know the hiding-place of a treasure
of gold does not find it, although he may pass over it
again and again, so none of these creatures find the world
of Brahman, although they daily enter into it (in deep
sleep) ; for they are constrained by unreality." " Those
therefore who find this world of Brahman by Brahma -
c'aryam (a life spent as a Brahman student in study and
self-mortification), of such is this world of Brahman, and
such have part in all worlds in a life of freedom."1 The
constraint of the will, absolute as it is, yet belongs entirely
to the great illusion of the empirical reality, and vanishes
with it. The phenomenal form is under constraint, but
that which makes its appearance in it, the atman, is free.
The real consistency of the two points of view is expressed
in the words : — " It is he who causes the man whom he
will lead on high out of these worlds to do good works,
and it is he who causes the man whom he will lead down
wards to do evil works." ; How this thought assumes the
form of a doctrine of predestination, in proportion as the
atman is conceived as a personal god, has been already
shown (p. I72ff.). But the entire doctrine of predestination,
like the theism on which it depends, is in the Upani-
shads only an attempt to express in empirical forms
what is essentially foreign to them. The eternally free
atman, who determines our doing and abstaining, is not
another, contrasted with us, but our own self. Therefore

1 Chund. 8. 3. 2. 2 Chand. 8. 4. 3. 3 Kaush. 3. 8.

BRAHMAN AS PROVIDENCE 211

it is said of the atman : — " He fetters himself by himself
(nibadhndti dtmand dtmdnam), like a bird by its nest."
And in Pras'na 3. 3 the answer to the question, how the
atman enters into this body is given: — "he enters into
this body manokritena" which if we follow S'ankara would
here mean " by the action of his will," although grammar
requires a different conception (as mano-kritena, " uncon
sciously)," an objection which (in spite of Rigv. I. 187. 7)
it is difficult to pass by with a sandhir drshah (as Anan-
dajnana says).

4. Brahman as Providence

While the control of the universe may be ascribed to
an impersonal principle (acting as antarydmin, " inner
guide " ), Providence implies a personal God. In
harmony with this in the ancient Upanishads we see
a belief in Providence, like theism, make its appearance
only here and there as a poetical form of representation.
It is only in the later Upanishads that with the personi
fication of the atman belief in a divine providence also
acquires a firmer consistency. The conception of Ait. 1. 2
is mythical throughout, describing how the deities, (i.e.
the organs of sense and the corresponding nature gods),
produced by the atman from the purusha, plunge into the
ocean, suffer hunger and thirst, and then receive from the
atman mankind allotted to them as a domicile, in which
they may enjoy food, which they are then however
compelled to share with the demoniac powers of hunger
and thirst. The " well-being" also (i.e. probably "adapt
ability") which in Taitt. 2. 7 is declared to be the
essence of the universe, and (by means of a play on the
words sukrita and svakrita) is deduced from the fact that
the universe is only a self-manifestation of the Brahman
who is essentially bliss, can only be regarded as the first

1 Maitr. 3. 2.

212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

germ of a belief in a providence that guides to ends.
Such a providence appears more clearly as early as Kath.
5. 13:—

He who as the eternal creates the temporal,

Himself pure bliss, as spirit creates the spirits, as one the many,

He who, the wise, sees them dwell in himself,

He alone and no other has eternal peace.

The concession which the first half of this verse makes to
theism is retracted in the second half, and it is character
istic that in the reproduction of this verse in S'vet. 6. 13
the second half is altered in a theistic sense : —

He who by examination (miikhyam) and devotion (yoga)
Knows this primeval one as god, is freed from all fetters.1

A significant advance in the direction of theism and
belief in providence is found in the thought which is
repeated from Kath. 5. 13 in Is'a 8, where it is said
(word for word) :— " The wise, thoughtful, all-comprehend
ing, self-existent one has assigned ends ydthdtathyato
for all time." The word ydthatathyato, interpolated later
as the metre shows, gives evidence of a further advance
upon the original verse ; " in proportion to the quality,"
i.e. according to (yathd) the works of the individual soul,
so (tathd) has the wise thoughtful one (kavir manishi)
determined beforehand the ends (the fruit of actions, the
doing and suffering of each soul). This is already, unless
we have read too much into the verse, the part which
is'vara plays in the later Vedanta. The works of the
soul are the seed-corn, which in close correspondence with
its quality is made to grow by god as the rain ; just as by
the seed the plant, so by the works of the earlier existence
the future life is determined both as regards its doing and
its suffering. A clear distinction between these two is not

1 According to some, the author here, as a foundation for his theism
appeals to the atheistic Sankhya system !

BRAHMAN AS PROVIDENCE 213

to be found even in the later Vedanta. In general this later
Vedanta standpoint is anticipated by the S'vetas'vatara
Upanishad, which in harmony with its theistic colouring
depicts the atman as " the overseer of actions," 1 " the only
free one, who multiplies the one seed of many who are by
nature free from actions,"2 who apportions to each his
qualities,3 who executes justice, restrains the evil, allots
good fortune,4 " who, himself colourless, but endowed
abundantly with powers, assigns the numerous colours
to appointed ends," 5 who brings to maturity the actions
of the soul : —

When every birth comes to maturity with his being,
Whatever is to ripen, he makes it all to grow ;
He as one, guides here all and each,
Apportioning to each his peculiar gifts.6

It is moreover characteristic of this Upanishad (which
we compared above to a codex palimpsestus), that the
ancient Upanishad thought ever and anon makes itself
apparent through this elaborate theistic doctrine of re
compense ; by virtue of which it is God Himself who
fetters Himself as soul to continually new forms cor
responding to the actions that have been committed :—

As soul he chooses many forms both gross

And subtle, corresponding to his virtue ;

And that which bound him by the power of his work and of himself

To this, binds him also to another.7

We see therefore the thinkers of the Upanishads, after
they have wandered in obedience to the empirical determi
nation of their intellect, into realistic modes of repre
sentation, constantly returning to the original idealism.

1 S'vet. 6. 11.

2 S'vet. 6. 12 ; in reality the soul is actionless like the atman, which it is.

3 S'vet. 6. 4. 4 S'vet. 6. 6. 6 S'vet. 4. 1.
• S'vet. 5. 5. r S'vet. 5. 12.

214 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

5. Cosmography of the Upanishads

The views that are found in the Upanishads with
regard to the universe and its parts are scanty in detail,
and possess little consistency.

As concerns, to begin with, the geographical horizon,
it is seen to be essentially limited by the ranges of the
Himfdaya and Vindhya on the north and south,1 and by
the river basins and mouths of the Indus and Ganges on
the west and east. Day is born in the ocean towards the
east, night in the ocean towards the west.2 "These
streams, my dear sir, flow in the east towards the
morning, and in the west towards the evening; from
ocean to ocean they flow (uniting together), they become
open sea.": What lies beyond these limits appears to be
unknown. Only in a quite late Upanishad that is founded
upon the Ramayana is mention made of Lanka in (si'c)
Ceylon 4 and similar names. But even the country of the
Indus appears as almost unknown. Noble steeds are
brought thence,5 perhaps salt also ; 6 the people of
Gandhara (west of the Indus, and south of Peshawar)
appear in Cliand. G. 14 as distant; the Brahman students
penetrate in their wanderings as far as the Madras (on
the Ilyphasis).7 Just as Yajfiavalkhya appears as the
greatest personality in the Upanishads, so Janaka appears
as the centre of the intellectual life of the court that
surrounds him ; he is king of Videha (north-east of Patna),
where in Brih. 3. 1. 1 the Brahmans also of the Kurus
and Panc'filas (who dwell farther west, between the
Ganges and the Jumna) gather together to the great

1 Kaush. 2. 13. 2 Brih. 1. 1. 2.

3 Chiind. 6. 10. 1; whether we are to think here with S'ankara in lor. of a
return of the water of the sea into the rivers by means of clouds and rain is
in view of the wording of the text very questionable ; cp. Chand. 2. 4. 1.

4 Ilamapurvat. 43. 45. 5 Brih. G. 1. 13.

6 Brih. 2. 4. 12, 4. 5. 13 ; cp. Maitr. G. 35. 7 Brih. 3. 3. 1, 3. 7. 1.

COSMOGRAPHY 215

argumentative contest described in Brih. 3. 1-9. Together
with these, reference is made to the courts of Ajatas'atru,
king of Kasi (around Benares),1 and of Jivala, king of the
Panc'alas.2 The Kekayas, on the upper course of the
Hydraotes, as repositories of the knowledge stored up in the
Upanishads, seem to belong to the far north-west ; whose
king As'vapati imparts instruction on the Vais'vanara to
the six Brahmans who approach him.3 Apart from these,
in the enumeration in Kaush. 4. 1 of the peoples who
have sought the renowned Vedic scholar Gargya Balaki,
are named probably all the tribes who took an active part
in the intellectual life of the period. They are these :—
the Uslnaras, Satvans, and Matsyas, west of the Jumna ;
the Kurus and Pafic'alas between the Jumna and Ganges ;
the Kasls east of the latter, and still farther east the
Videhas. No common name for the Aryan races or their
country is found in the ancient Upanishads. In Nadabindu
12 for the first time Bhdratam varsham occurs as a name
of Aryan India. The "five races of five"4 appear to
denote merely the indefinite multitude5 of all the races
of mankind.

The earth is surrounded by water.6 According to a
late text, it has oceans, mountains, and seven islands or
continents.7 The conception of heaven and earth as the
two halves of the egg of the universe recurs.8 A similar
view appears to lie at the basis of the cosmography
described in Brih. 3. 3. Here the same concentric
arrangement holds in the universe as in the different
layers in an egg, viz. — (1) in the middle the (inhabited)

1 Brih. 2. 1, Kaush. 4.

2 Chand. 5. 3-10, Brih. 6. 2 ; for whom in Kaush. 1 C'itra Gfoigydyana is
introduced.

3 S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 1, Chand. 5. 11-24.

4 panc'a panc'ajandh, Brih. 4. 4. 17 ; cp. the remark there.

5 cp. panc'anadam, Allgemeine Einleitung, p. 73. 6 Chand. 3. 11. 6.
7 Nrisirhhap. 1. 2, 5. 2. 8 Chand. 3. 19.

216 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

world, (2) around this the earth, (3) around this again the
sea. The world is in breadth 3:2 days' journey of the
chariot of the sun, the earth 64, the sea 128 ; according
to which measurement the diameter of the egg of the
universe would amount to 416 courses of the sun.
" There," i.e. where heaven and earth as the two layers of
the egg of the universe meet one another, " is a space as
broad as the edge of a razor or the wing of a fly " (between
the two layers), through which access is obtained to the
place where the offerers of the horse-sacrifice are, i.e.
probably to the " back of heaven " (nakasya prishtham)
mentioned in other passages as being "free from suffer
ing,"1 where according to Taitt. Ar. 10. 1. 52 union with
Brahman is obtained,2 but according to Vaj. Sarhh. 15. 50
recompense for good works, and the latter according to
Mund. 1. 2. 10 8 is transitory. A second scheme of
cosmography, though put forward by Yajnavalkhya in
Brih. 3. 6 in the same context, is irreconcilable with that
mentioned in Brih. 3. 3. According to this theory the
universe inwoven with the water is besides " inwoven and
interwoven " with ten other layers, i.e. is overlaid by them,
or, perhaps more correctly, is altogether surrounded by
them. These ten layers (the worlds of the wind, the
atmosphere, the Gandharvas, the sun, moon, stars, the
gods, Indra, Prajapati and Brahman) recall the degrees of
bliss of Brih. 4. 3. 33 and Taitt. 2. 8, as well as the
stations of the way of the gods.4 The difference is that in
these, as we shall see later, measurements of time and space
are co-ordinated together, exactly as in Chand. 2. 10. 5
similar terms are added together without consideration.5
The prevailing view in the Upanishads is the

1 ndkam = na akam, Chuud. 2. 10. 5.

2 brahma salokatd ; cp. also Mahanilr. 1. 1, 10. 21, 63. 5.

3 cp. Kath. 3. 1.

4 Chand. 4. 15. 5, 5. 10. 1-2, Brih. 6. 2. 15, and especially Kaush. 1. 3.
6cp. also Brih. 1. 1.

COSMOGRAPHY 2 1 7

traditional one, according to which there are three world-
regions, earth, air and heaven, to which Agni, Vayu and
Aditya correspond as rulers.1 The fragment of a verse
also which is inserted in Chand. 8. 5. 3 is to be interpreted
in this sense (that this is so is shown by Atharvav. 5. 4. 3
also) : — trittyasydm ito dim. The reference is not here,
as often elsewhere, to three heavens, but the words mean,

— " In the heaven, which is (reckoned) the third from
here." According to Ait. 1. 1. 2 the primeval waters
extend above and below the three regions (earth, air and
heaven). Brih. 3. 8. 4 teaches that all three are inwoven
in the akas'a, as the latter in Brahman. Very often earth,
air and heaven are denoted by the three mystic syllables
of the sacrifice (vyahritis) bhur, bJiuvah, svar. In Taitt.
1. 5 a fourth mahas is added to them, denoting probably
Brahman. Later, three higher worlds, janas, tapas, and
satyam, were imposed above these four, and so the number
seven was obtained, the first mention of which as far as
our knowledge goes is in Mund. 1. 2. 3, and the first
enumeration of them in Taitt. Ar. 10. 27-28. Later lists
are given in Nadabindu 3-4, Nrisimhap. 5. 6. In course
of time a distinction was drawn between bhdr, bJiuvah,
svar, mahas, fana(s), tapas, and satyam as the seven
upper worlds, and atala, pdtdla, vitala, sutala, rasdtala,
mahdtala, taldtala 2 as the seven lower. Even this number
was exceeded, and in Atharvasiras 6 nine heavens, nine
atmospheres, and nine earths are reckoned.

The number also of the heavenly regions is differently
given. In Chand. 4. 5. 2 four are enumerated (east, west,
south and north ; five in Brih. 3. 9. 20-24 ; six in Brih.
4. 2. 4, Chand. 7. 25 ; eight (four poles, and four intermediate
between the poles) in Maitr. 6. 2, Ramap. 71-72, 87, 89.

1 Chand. 1. 3. 7, 2. 21. 1, 3. 15. 5, Brih. 1. 2. 3, 1. 5. 4, 3. 9. 8, Pras'na
5. 7, etc.

2 Aruneya Up. 1 ; cp. Veduntasara § 129.

218 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Astronomical conceptions are only slightly developed
in the Upanishads. Sun and mooii enter principally into
consideration, in so far as they form stations for the
soul on its journey to the other world, a subject that will
later demand treatment. If the texts of Chfmd. 4. 15. 5,
5. 10. 2 are to be followed, the sun is nearer to us than the
moon. The red white and black aspects of the sun depend,
according to Chfmd. 3. 1 f., on the juices of the different
Vedas dissolved in it. According to Chfmd. 6. 4. 2-3, sun
and moon also, like everything else in the universe, consist
of the three elements ; the red in them of fire, the white
of water, the black of earth. The sun moves in winter
and summer alternately for six months to the south and
six to the north.1 It is disc-shaped (mandalam).2 The
purusha of the sun dwells therein, who is usually hidden
by the rays,3 but by these same rays is brought into
connection with the purusha in the eye,4 or with the veins
of the heart.5 The moon is (as in Rigv. X. 85. 5) the
som;i cup of the gods, which is alternately drained by them
and again filled ; 6 on the other hand, the waxing and
waning of the moon depend on the arrival of the dead
therein and their return.7 The two conceptions are com
bined in Brih. 6. 2. 16. According to Brih. 1. 5. 14,
the moon is Prajfipati as prana, whose fifteen parts
alternately disappear and are again restored. At an
eclipse the moon is held in the jaws of Rdhu.8 All night
long the moon holds on her course among the other con
stellations (nalcsliatram), on which she depends like the
Saman on the Ric'.9 The same 27 constellations are
traversed, according to Maitr. 6. 14, by the sun on his
yearly journey, and therefore on each of the twelve

1 Chfmd. 4. 15. 5, 5. 10. 1-3, Brih. 6. 2. 15-16.

2 Brih. 2. 3. 3, 5. 5. 2-3, Malmuur. 13.

3 Brih. 5. 5. 2, 5. 15, Is'a 16. 4 Brih. 5. 5. 2. « Chand. 8. 6. 2.

c Chand. 5. 10. 4. * Kaush. 1. 2, 2. 8 ; differently in 2. 9.

8 Chand. 8. 13. 1. » Chand. 1. 6. 4.

COSMOGRAPHY 219

months -f-£ aksha tras, i.e. nine quarters (navdms'aJcam)
of them are covered. The planets (grahdh) are first
mentioned in Maitr. 6. 16. In a very late text1 their
number is given as nine, and therefore together with sun
and moon Rdhu and Ketu also (the head and tail of
the dragon) are reckoned with them. S'ukra, Venus,2 and
S'ani, Saturn are especially mentioned with Rahu and
Ketu.3 Of movements affecting the cosmos there are
mentioned in Maitr. 1. 4 : — "the drying up of great seas,
shattering of mountains, oscillations of the pole-star
(dhruva), straining of the ropes of the wind (which bind
the constellations to the pole-star), sinkings of the earth,
and overthrow of the gods from their place."

As curiosities of natural science we will cite further
that the rain has its origin from the sun,4 while heat

O '

occasions storm and ram,5 just as indeed in men warmth
draws forth sweat and heat tears of pain ; 6 also that accord
ing to Maitr. 6. 27 " a piece of iron buried in the earth
enters forthwith into the substance of the earth." The
anatomical and physiological views of the Upanishads will
later on be discussed.7

VIII. BRAHMAN AS DESTROYER OF THE UNIVERSE

1. The Kalpa Theory of the later Veddnta

Before we trace in the Upanishads the development
of the doctrine of Brahman as destroyer of the universe,
it is worth while to glance at the theory of the later
Vedanta, which is the result of this development.
According to the Vedanta system, the actions of each life-
history find their precisely equivalent recompense in the

1 Ramottarat. 5. 2 Maitr. 7. 3. 3 Maitr. 7. 6.

4 Mahanar. 63. 16, Maitr. 6. 37 ; cp. Mann 3. 76. 5 Cliand. 7, 11. 1,

6 Cliand. 6. 2. 3. 7 Chap. XII. 6.

220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

next succeeding life. Each life both in doing and in
suffering is only the fruit of the actions of a preceding
birth. Hence it follows that each existence always pre
supposes an earlier, that consequently no existence can be
the first, and that the migration (samsdra) of souls is
maintained from all eternity. The absence of a beginning
of the ffuji&lra (samsdra fry a andditvam) is therefore a
necessary consequence of the Vedanta teaching ; and this
is not only assumed by Gaudapfida1 and defended by
S'ankara, but occurs also already in the sutras of
Badarayana,2 and is actually found in some of the later
Upanishads.8 This absence of a beginning to the circuit I
of the souls' migration is in contradiction to the numerous/
creation theories of the Upanishads, which collectively^
teach a creation of the universe at one time, as is at once
proved by the constantly recurring expression, " At the
beginning." In order to assert the absence of a begin
ning of the samsara as demanded by their system, and yet
to uphold the Upanishad doctrine of a creation, the theo
logians of the Vedanta conceive the creation of the universe
as an event recurring periodically from all eternity. The
universe created by Brahman persists through an entire
world-period (kalpa), after which it returns into Brahman,
only to issue again from him ; since at each dissolution of
the universe there are works of the soul that still survive,
and these demand for their expiation a renewed existence
and therefore a re-creation of the universe : —

All living beings, 0 Kaunteya,

Return back into my nature

At the end of the world; at the world's beginning

I re-create them anew.5

1 Mandilkya-karika. 4. 30. 2 2. 1. 35.

3 e.g. Sarvop. 23 ; cp. the drastic description of Yogatattva 3-5.

4 ogre, Ait. 1. 1. 1, Chund. 3. 19. 1, 6. 2. 1, Brih. 1. 2. 1, 1. 4. 1, 10, 17,
5. 5. 1, Taitt. 2. 7. 1, Maitr. 2. G, 5. 2.

8 Bhag. Gita 9. 7, cp. 8. 17-19.

BRAHMAN AS DESTROYER 221

For proof S'ankara relies, as perhaps Badarayana before
him,1 on the verse in Rigv. X. 190. 3 :—

Stiryd-c'andramasau dhdtd yathdpilrvam akalpayat,

in which according to the context yathdpurvam signifies
only " one after the other," not as S'ankara maintains,2 "as
before." The other passage also, on which his theory rests :
— " I will enter into these three divinities with this living
self,"3 does not prove, as he believes, that the " living self"
existed already before the creation. This entire conception
of a periodically recurring creation and destruction of the
universe is still entirely foreign to the older Upanishads. In
order to trace its origin we shall have to distinguish, (1) the
return of individuals into Brahman, (2) that of the universe.

2. Return of Individuals into Brahman

The first starting-point of the conception of Brahman
as destroyer of the universe is formed probably by the
fact of death, which presents itself as the result of
experience, and engages attention at all times, and there
fore also as early as that ancient period. After men
had become accustomed to see in Brahman the power
which as prdna brings forth and sustains life, it was an
easy step to restore it to the same power " when it
wearies of bearing the burden," and to see in Brahman
as prdna "the cause of death and of life."4 Therefore
as early as S'atap. Brah. 11. 3. 3. 1 we find it said :—
" Brahman handed over the creatures to death " ; and in
S'atap. Brah. 13. 7. 1. 1 again : — " He sacrificed himself in all
beings, and all beings in himself." This thought is further
expanded by the Upanishads. In Brih. 1. 2. 1 " death
and hunger " (mrityur, as'andyd) figure as creators of the
universe : — " all that he created he resolved to devour ;

1 2. 1. 36. 2 p. 495. 7.

3 Chand. 6. 3. 2. 4 Taitt. Ar. 3. 14. 1-2, Atharvav. ] 1. 4. 11.

222 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

because he devours (ad) everything, therefore is he the
Aditi (the infinite)." And in Brih. 1. 5. 3 Prajapati
creates the all-embracing principles, manas, speech and
prana, as food for himself. In the words of Kath. 2. 25 :

He consumes both the Brahman and the warrior,

As though they were bread soaked in the sauce of death,

a poetical echo of passages of this kind seems to be before
us. In Chand. 1. 9. 1 it is said of the akas'a (ether,
space, as the symbol of Brahman) : — " It is the akas'a
whence all these creatures proceed, and into which they
again descend." And in Taitt. 3. 1 a distinctive mark
of Brahman is given : — " That in truth out of which
these beings arise, by which they when they have arisen
live, into which they at death again enter, that seek to
know, that is Brahman." In all these passages the
reference is solely to the descent of individual beings
into Brahman, not to that of the universe. So also in
Mund. 1. 1. 7, where Brahman is compared to the
spider, which sends forth the threads and draws them
in again ; and in Mund. 2. 1. 1, where living beings in
their numerous kinds issue forth from the imperishable
and enter into him again. In the same sense it is said
of the atman in Mand. 1. 6 : — "He is the cradle of the
universe, for he is the creation and the end of living
beings " ; and in Naray. 1 of Nfirayana : — " All gods, all
rishis, all metres, and all creatures originate solely from
" Naray ana, and are lost in Naray ana." We may compare
also the beautiful verses of C'ulika 17-18 :—

In him in whom this universe is interwoven,
Whatever moves or is motionless,
In Brahman everything is lost,
Like bubbles in the ocean.

In him in whom the living creatures of the universe
Emptying themselves become invisible,
They disappear and come to light again
As bubbles rise to the surface.

RETURN OF INDIVIDUALS INTO BRAHMAN 223

To these passages also the doctrine of the disappearance
of the universe in Brahman appears to be still unfamiliar.
And therefore we must hesitate to find it with S'ankara
in the mystical name Tajjaldn,1 discussed above ; 2 since
this idea is still foreign to all the rest of the Upanishads,
and the conception of Brahman as the cause of the rise,
continuance and disappearance of individual beings is
sufficient to explain the term. Still less can we refer the
words of Vaj. Samh. 32. 8,

tasmin idam sam- c'a vi- c'a eti sarvam,
to a dissolution and re-creation of the universe. Judging
from the entire context, they signify only that the vein is
" the centre and circumference of the universe." 3 The
case stands otherwise with the repetition of these words
in S'vet. 4. II.4 Here from their relation to the other
passages of the S'vet. Up. they gain a new significance,
which we now proceed to discuss.

3. Return of the Universe as a Whole into Brahman

Among the new and fruitful thoughts in which the
S'vet. Up. is so rich is to be counted that also of the
periodical dissolution and re-creation of the universe by
Brahman. "He (Rudra as a personification of Brahman)
dwells in the creatures, and burning with fury at the
end of time he as lord dashes to pieces all created
things " ; 5 he regulates all the aims of the creatures,
"until finally the whole is lost in him, who is the
beginning."1 And we must understand similarly the
words of Vaj. Samh. 32. 8 quoted above, when they recur
in this connection;7 it is god, "in whom the universe

1 Chand. 3. 14. 1. 2p. 180f.

3 cp. the translation, Allgemeine Einleitung u. Philosophic des Veda, p. 294.

4 And in Mahanar. 1. 2, which is dependent upon it.

5 S'vt-t. 3. 2. e S'Vet. 4. 1. * S'vet. 4. 11.

224 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

is lost and reappears " (yasmin idam sam- c'a vi- c'a cti
sarvam). This process however of the creation and dis
solution of the universe is not unique, but is continually
being repeated. In 8 vet. 5. 3 " the god, who many times
spreads forth one net after another in space and again
draws it in," is compared to a spider.1 The reason also
for this periodically recurring re-creation of things is
indicated in S'vet. 6. 3-4, where it is said, following upon
a description of the work of creation : —

That which he created he then takes back again,

Becoming one with the being of being ;

In order then . . .

To begin afresh the work rich in the gunas,

Apportioning to each their attributes.

That it is only the soul's actions which prompt the creator
to " apportion to each all their attributes (sarvdn bhdvdn
viniyojayet) is asserted by the immediately succeeding
words :—

Where they are not there action cornea to nought,
Thither he departs actionless, in reality another ;

i.e. where the bhdvas which constitute the empirical
nature are destroyed by knowledge, actions come to
nought, and a re-creation no longer takes place.

The following passages from later Upanishads that
treat of Brahman as destroyer of the universe are note
worthy :—

" It is he who, when the universe is dissolved, alone
remains on the watch ; and it is he who then (again) from
the depths of space wakens to life the pure spirits."

" When Rudra lies in the coils of the snake, then created
things are absorbed into him. When he draws breath,
the darkness arises, from the darkness water," etc. ; 3 cp.

1 As in Mund. 1.1.7; cp. S'vet. 3. 1, 6. 10.

2 Maitr. 6. 17. 3 Atharvac'iraa 6.

DISSOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE 225

the preceding passage : — " He who consuming all the forces
of life, while consuming them, as the eternal one gathers
together and again evolves them," etc.1 This passage may
however also be understood of sleeping and waking.

The fire that destroys the universe (samvartako 'gniJi)
is mentioned in Atharvas'ikha 1 , and in the two reproduc
tions of this passage, Nrisimhap. 2. 1 and Nrisimhott. 3.
We close with the beautiful verse Kaivalya 19, where lie
who knows himself as the atman speaks :—

In me the universe had its origin,
In me alone the whole subsists,
In me it is lost, — this Brahman,
The timeless, it is I myself !

4. On the Origin of the Doctrine of the Dissolution of
the Universe in Brahman

Brahman is the womb whence all living beings proceed,
and it was very natural to assume that they return at
death into Brahman whence they have come forth ; for as
Anaximander already says: — "that from which existing
things originate, into it they necessarily also disappear."
Accordingly we see formulated, as was shown above, in
the texts of the oldest Upanishads and even earlier, the
doctrine of Brahman as destroyer of individual creatures.
Thence has been developed first in later times, from the
gVetas'vatara Upanishad and onward, the doctrine of
the periodical destruction of the universe by Brahman,
precisely as the teaching of Heracleitus that all things
come forth from fire (o&W /caro)), and return into it (oSo?
ai/w), signified originally a twofold process linked
together everywhere in the universe in the rise and
disappearance of individual creatures, which was then
however generalised, whether by Heracleitus himself or by
his successors the Stoics, into a periodically recurring dis-

1 Atharvac'iras 4.
'5

226 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

solution of the universe in fire (eV7ru/>o>crt?) and reconstruc
tion out of it (&iaicoarfjLr)(n<;). Of the causes which in Greek
philosophy may have led to this generalisation we learn
nothing more precisely. In India to a great extent it
gave support to the doctrine of recompense, inasmuch as
the latter, as already shown, was only capable of being
reconciled with the doctrine of a creation, if for the single
creation taught in the ancient Upanishads there was
substituted an eternally recurring process, a re-creation
of the universe occurring after each dissolution, and de
termined by the actions of the souls. On its very first
appearance the doctrine of the dissolution of the universe
is connected with that of recompense, as is shown by the
passages quoted above,1 and especially S'vet. 6. 4 (" where
they are not, there work comes to nought"). Whether
however the original motive for the doctrine of the dissolu
tion and periodical reconstruction of the universe lay in the
wish to maintain, after the manner of the later Vedanta,
the traditional doctrine of creation side by side with the
later doctrine of recompense ; or only in the natural
attempt to generalise the dissolution of objects, which
experience showed to be the case, into a universal
dissolution, just as the entire doctrine of a creation
of the universe originally rested on a generalisation of
the observed origin of individuals, — to decide this is
perhaps not possible in presence of the partial and
ambiguous expressions of the S'vet. Upanishad.

IX. THE UNREALITY OF THE UNIVERSE

1. TJie Doctrine of Maya as the Basis of all Philosophy

When Kant in his inquiry into the capability of the
human intellect drew the conclusion that the entire

1 p. 224 f.

DOCTRINE OF MAYA 227

universe, as we know it, is only appearance and not
reality, lie said nothing absolutely new, but only in more
intelligible demonstrated form uttered a truth which in
less intelligible shape had been in existence long before
him ; which indeed as intuitive half-unconscious know
ledge had from the very beginning formed the basis of all
philosophy. For if the objects of the universe were not,
as Kant asserted, mere phenomena, but exactly as they
appear to our consciousness in space and time had a real
existence apart from that consciousness and in themselves,
then an empirical discussion and inquiry into nature
would lead to final and sufficient conclusions respecting
the essence of things. In opposition to this empirical
method of treatment philosophy from the very beginning
has endeavoured to find the essential nature, or as it is
usually expressed, the first principle of the universe. This
search moreover always assumes the consciousness, even if
still quite undefined, that this first principle, this essence
of things, is not given already in the objects themselves,
as they present themselves to our eyes in space and time ;
that, in other words, the entire aggregate of experience,
external and internal, always shows us merely how things
appear to us, not how they are in themselves. And the
more definitely conscious the several schools of philosophy
are of their proper function as opposed to the empirical
science, the more clearly does this knowledge come to the
front. This is the case in Greek philosophy, when
Parmenides asserts the empirical reality to be mere
show, or Plato to be mere shadows l of the true reality ;
and in Indian philosophy, when the Upanishads teach
that this universe is not the atman, the proper "self" of'
things, but a mere mdyd, a deception, an illusion, and
that the empirical knowledge of it yields no vidyd,
no true knowledge, but remains entangled in avidyd in

1 Rep. vii. i.

228 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

ignorance. Since the expression mdyd in this sense can be
pointed out only comparatively late, not earlier, that is to
say, than S'vet. 4. 10, the theory has been propounded that
we ought to recognise in this doctrine a secondary specula
tion only developed in course of time from the theory of
the universe adopted in the Upanishads. We propose now
to show that this is not the case, but rather that the older
the texts of the Upanishads are, the more uncompromisingly
and expressly do they maintain this illusory character of the
world of experience ; but that this peculiar and apparently
far-fetched idea is seldom expressed in absolute simplicity,
and usually appears under forms which are completely ex
plained as an adoption of the empirical modes of knowledge
which are natural to us all, and refuse to be shaken off.

2. The Doctrine of Mdyd in the Upanishads

There are in the literature of the Upanishads some
texts which, judged by all external and internal criteria,
claim a higher antiquity than others ; as for example
the chapters of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, where
Yfijnavalkhya's views of the universe are developed.1 We
shall see how in these chapters more distinctly than in any
other place the doctrine of the sole reality of the atman
and the unreality of a manifold universe outside of the
atman is enunciated. First however we propose to show
how, as early as the ancient Vedic philosophy that
preceded the Upanishads, the seed was sown which by
Yajiiavalkhya, whoever he may have been, was developed
into the great fundamental thought of the Upanishads,
which occupies the attention of all succeeding ages.

We saw2 how as early as the later hymns of the
Rigveda the thought was introduced, which here as
always marks the first step in philosophy, the thought

i Brih. 2. 4, and 3. 1-4. 5.

8 Allyemeine Einleitung u. Philosophic d. Veda, pp. 103-127.

DOCTRINE OF MAYA 229

of the unity of existence. It involves, if only in germ
and half unconsciously, the knowledge that all plurality
— consequently all proximity in space, all succession in
time, all interdependence of cause and effect, all contrast
of subject and object — has no reality in the highest sense.
When it is said in Rigv. I. 164. 46 : — ekam sad mprd
bahudhd vadanti, " the poets give many names to that
which is only one," it is implied therein that plurality
depends solely upon words ("a mere matter of words," as
it is said later),1 and that unity alone is real. In the
attempt also to define more closely this unity, as we have
traced it through the period of the Hymns and the
Brahmanas, the thought more or less clearly finds ex
pression that it is not plurality that is real, but only
unity; — "the one, besides which there was no other";2
" the one, inserted into the everlasting nave, in which all
living beings are fixed." 3 When also it is said :— " This
entire universe is the purusha alone, both that which was
and that which endures for the future," 4 it is implied that
in the entire universe, in all past and future, the one and
only purusha is the sole real. The common people how
ever do not know this ; they regard as the real not the
stem, but " that which he is not, the branches that conceal
him " ; 5 for that " in which gods and men are fixed like
spokes in the nave," the " flower of the water " (i.e.
Brahman as Hiranyagarbha), " is concealed by illusion." G
This idealism, which denies the existence of the manifold
universe, gained strength and complete definition by the
introduction and ever firmer grasp of the conception of the

1 Chand. 6. 1. 3. 2 Rigv. X. 129. 2.

3 Rigv. X. 82. G. * Rigv. X. 90. 2.

5 (UW-c'hdKMm prcdiskthantim, Atliarvav. X. 7. 21 ; cp. also Dhy final). 10.

6 mdyd, Atharvav. X. 8. 34 ; on passages like these, and the verse Rigv.
VI. 47. 18, interpreted in a similar sense as early as Brih. 2. 5. 19, — indro
mdijdbhih purunlpa* iyate, — the later introduction of the term mdyd into
philosophy in S'vet. 4. 10 may depend.

2 3o THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

dtman or self. This conception, as has often been pointed
out, is essentially negative, and to that end claims to strip
off from an object all that can be stripped from it, which
therefore does not belong to the inalienable substance of
its self, and is accordingly not-self. So long as only the
atman of an individual was taken into consideration, this
not-self might perhaps be the self of another individual,
and consequently real ; so soon however as the conception
of the atman of the universe, the " great omnipresent
atman," l which is " greater than heaven space and earth," '
was attained, that which as not-self was excluded from
the atman was by that very fact excluded from the sum
of being, and therefore from reality. This cosmical atman
moreover, which admits no reality outside of itself, was at
the same time present, small as a grain of rice," etc.,3
whole and undivided in a man's own self; and this
identity of the cosmical and the psychical principle was
always visibly preserved by the word atman :— the self in
us is the pathfinder of the great omnipresent Atman.4
is precisely this thought that is the starting-point of the
teaching of the Upanishads, as it recurs almost word for
word hTthe first instance in one of the oldest texts, Brih.
1. 4. 7 (which rests on the authority of Yajiiavalkhya,

Brih. 1. 4. 3): "this therefore is the trace of the

universe, which is the atman here (in us), for in it man
recognises the entire universe, . . . therefore is this dearer
than& a son, dearer than a kingdom, dearer than all else ;
for it is closer than all, for it is this soul (dtman)"

A further amplification of this thought, which as
already said goes back probably to the authority of
Yajfiavalkhya, is found in the discourses of Yajiiavalkhya
with his wife Maitreyi, the high antiquity of which i
testified both on internal grounds and by the double

i Taitt. Bruh. 3. U. 9. 7. 2 S'atap. Bmli. X. 63

• S'atap. Brah. X. G. 3. * Taitt. Brah. 3. U>. 9. 7.

DOCTRINE OF MiYA 231

recension of it, in two collections which antedate our
Upanishad, and were first united with it at a later period.1
Yajiiavalkhya begins his instruction with the sentence :—
" In truth, not for the husband's sake is the husband
dear, but for the self's sake is the husband dear." The
same is then asserted, with constant repetition of this
formula, of wife, sons, kingdom, Brahman and warrior
castes, world- regions, gods, living creatures, and the
universe ; they are all dear, not on their own account,
but for the sake of the self. By the self is to be under
stood here, as the conclusion of the paragraph shows,2
the consciousness, the knowing subject within us. And
the thought is that all objects and relations of the
universe exist for us, and are known and loved by us
only in so far as ~ they enter into our consciousness,
which comprehends in itself all the objects of the universe,
and has nothing outside of itself. Therefore it is said
further : — " The self in truth we should comprehend,
should reflect upon, 0 Maitreyi. He who has seen, heard,
comprehended and known the self, by him this entire
universe is known." As the notes of a drum, a conch-
shell, or a lute have no existence in themselves, and can
only be received when the instrument that produces them
is struck, so all objects and relations of the universe are
known by him who knows the atman.3 In the atman as
the knowing subject space with all its contents is inter
woven ; 4 all the heavenly regions are its organs ; 5 the
universe of names forms and works, " although it is
threefold is one, that is the atman " ; he is the immortal,
which is concealed by the (empirical) reality,6 he is the
reality of reality ; 7 from him spring forth, as sparks from

1 Brih. 2. 4 and 4. 5 ; cp. Deussen, Upan., pp. 376-378.

2 Brih. 2. 4. 14. 3 Brih. 2. 4. 7-9.
4 Brih. 3. 8. 11, 4. 4. 17. 5 Brih. 4. 2. 4.

6 amritam satyena c'hannam, Brih. 1. 6. 3.

7 satyasya satyam, i.e. that of the reality which is truly real.

232 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the fire, all the vital spirits, all worlds, all gods, all
living creatures ; 1 in him they all are fixed, like spokes
in the nave of a wheel;2 "he oversteps in sleep this
universe, and the forms of death " ; 3 only " as it were "
he plans and moves;4 only " as it were" is there a
duality;6 only "as it were" does another exist;6 he
stands as spectator alone and without a second ; 7 there
is in no wise a plurality : 8 —

In thought should it be heeded,
Here is no plurality anywhere ;
By death is he bound fast to death
Who here contemplates plurality.

The passages quoted belong almost entirely to the
oldest Upanishad literature that we possess, and thus
we meet, not for the first time in the later stream of
this literature but equally at its beginning, a distinct
entirely self-consistent idealism, connected with the
name of Yajnavalkhya, and according to which the atman,
i.e. the knowing subject, is the sustainer of the universe
and the sole reality ; so that with the knowledge of the
atman all is known. This thought which first makes its
appearance in the discourses of Yajnavalkhya in the
Brihadaranyaka is never again surrendered, and dominates,
it is true with certain empirical modifications of which
it will be necessary subsequently to treat, the entire
development of the doctrine of the Upanishads up to
its conclusion with Bfidarayana and S'ankara. In the
Upanishads we find it appearing in different forms. Thus
upon it depends the question, which stands at the com
mencement of the Mund. 1. 3: — "What is that, most
worthy sir, with the knowledge of which this entire

1 Brih. 2. 1. 20. 2 Brih 2. 5. 15.

* mrityo rtipdni, Brih. 4. 3. 7. 4 Brih. 4. 3. 7.

« Brih. 2. 4. 14. 6 Brih. 4. 3. 31.

T Brih. 4. 3. 32. 8 Brih. 4. 4. 19.

DOCTRINE OF MAYA 233

universe becomes known." The same question moreover,
going back to Brih. 2. 4. 5 (and 1. 4. 7), forms also the
starting-point of a text so old as C'hand. 6. 1. 2 : — " Have
you then sought for the instruction according to which
(even) the unheard becomes (already) heard, the uncom-
prehended comprehended, the unknown known?" The
expressions s'rutam, matam, vijndtam recurring here
already in the same form suggest a dependence of this
passage on Brih. 2. 4. 5. In another way also we seem
to be able to render this dependence very probable. We
have already above found the Chandogya Upanishad
reproducing word for word the passage in Brih. 3. 8. 9
touching the atman as holding apart the phenomenal
forms of the universe, as it was condensed in the descrip
tion of the atman as " the bridge that holds apart from
one another," 1 and betraying its dependence on the first
passage by the fact that it no longer correctly interprets
the meaning of the repeated words, since immediately
after it represents the bridge separating the phenomenal
forms of the universe as a bridge uniting the present world
with the next. The case is exactly similar when the
assertion of Brih. 2. 4. 5 that with the knowledge of the
atman all is known reappears in Chand. 6. 1. 2 in the
request for the instruction by which even that which is
still unheard, uncomprehended, unknown becomes already
heard, comprehended, known. For the true answer to
this request clearly consists in the fact that, as Brih.
2. 4. 5 and Mund. 1. 1. 3 agree in stating, with the
knowledge of the atman all is known. The author
however of Chand. 6. 1 f. does not give this answer,
but develops instead of it his theory of the three
primitive elements, heat water and food, with the
knowledge of which everything in the universe is known,

1 Brih. 4. 4. 22 : — esJia setur vidharana' eslidin lokdndm asambheddya ; cp.
sa setur vidhritir eshdm lokdndm asambheddya, Chand. 8. 4. 2.

234 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

because it is only a compound of these ; l and further, in
the three similes of the (white) clay, the (red) copper,
and the (black) iron,2 this tracing back of the white red
and black element in things to water heat and
food is already foreshadowed. The author therefore
has failed to understand the meaning of the request for
that with the knowledge of which all is known (i.e. for
the one atman) ; or rather, has intentionally altered it,
and that in a sense which, while he sees the unchangeable
not only in the " one without a second," but in his triple
classification also into heat, water and food, abandons the
monism of the doctrine of the Upanishads and arrives
at a triad of invariable' essences combined in unity,
thereby laying the earliest foundation for the Sankhya
doctrine of prakriti and the three gunas combined in it.
Otherwise and apart from this resolution of the unity
into a triad, he holds fast to the fundamental proposition
of Yajriavalkhya, asserting that all change is "a mere
matter of words, a simple name," and that in truth there
are only heat, water and food,3 although these last
also, according to his own theory,4 are merely trans
formations of the " one without a second." Therefore as a
matter of inference in any case the qualification " depend-
in^ on words and a mere name " would seem to underlie

^

his judgement. All this shows that here the fundamental
monistic position of Yajnavalkhya has been taken over from
tradition, but its bearing is no longer perfectly understood.
We meet further on with the same fundamental
principle of the sole reality of the atman (the knowing
subject) and the unreality of all else, when it is said in
Taitt. 2. G of the empirical reality : — " for this men call
reality " ; and when in Ait. 3. 3 it is explained that all
the phenomena of the universe are " guided by conscious-

1 Chfmcl. G. 4. 2 Very difl'erent from the similes of Brih. 2. 4. 7 f.

3 Chand. 6. 4. 4 Chand. 6. 2.

DOCTRINE OF MAYA 235

ness, founded in consciousness " ; and when in Kaush. 3. 8
the proposition " this also is still a plurality " is interpreted
to mean that as the spokes in the nave so " the elements
of being are fixed in the elements of consciousness, and
the elements of consciousness in the prana," seeing that it is
the self of consciousness and bliss, undecaying and immortal.
In later Upanishads we have to note that the
emphatic denial of plurality in the verse quoted from
Brin. 4. 4. 19 is repeated and amplified in the verses
Kath. 4. 10-11; and that finally, in SVet. 4. 10, the
advance of the realistic spirit of the Safikhya is opposed
by the assertion that the whole of prakriti is mere
may a. Faithful to the fundamental principle of
Yajiiavalkhya, the Is'a Upanishad in its opening words
requires us "to sink the universe in God," and adds to
the denial of plurality in verses 12-14 the denial of
change. Muriel. 1. 1. 3 makes inquiry, as has been shown,
for the atman as that with the knowledge of which all
is known. Mandukya 7 describes the atman as " effacing
the entire expanse of the universe, tranquil, blissful, free
from duality." And even the late Maitr. Up. 6. 24
explains the proposition that all plurality is mere appear
ance by the brilliant comparison of the atman with an
aldtac'akram, a spark which, made to revolve, appears
as a fiery circle. An expansion of this illustration is
given by Gaudapada in the Mandukya Karika 4. 47-52 ;
and this entire work is in general an eloquent exposition
of the thought of the sole reality of the atman, which
is traced back to the oldest Upanishad texts, and is
thenceforward uninterruptedly maintained.

3. The Doctrine of May a as it is presented under
Empirical Forms

The philosophy of Yajfiavalkhya, as it meets us in
the Brihad. Up. , can be comprised in the sentence :— -The

236 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

at man is the knowing subject in us. Hence it follows
immediately : — (1^ That the atman, as the knowing
subject, is itseiralways unknowable ; (2} that there is not
and never can be for us reality outside of the atman (a
universe outside of our consciousness). Both consequences
are recognised and clearly stated by Yajiiavalkhya ; they
mark the climax of the philosophical conceptions of the
Upanishads, the first for theology, the second for cos
mology ; and together they seem to bar any further pro
gress in philosophical thought. The inquiring mind of man
could not however rest here ; in spite of the unknowable-
ness of the atman, it proceeded to treat the atman (i.e.
God) as an object of knowledge ; and in spite of the
unreality of the universe outside of the atman it proceeded
to concern itself with the universe as though it were real.
This gives rise in theology to numerous methods of repre
senting the atman by the help of metaphor, and these,
though they are based upon an inadmissible drawing of
the atman down into the sphere of human knowledge,
play around the accepted fundamental dogma of the un-
knowableness of the atman, and are resolved again into it.
And the result of this very application of the categories
of empirical knowledge beyond their rightful limits is that
in the cosmology the traditional pantheistic, cosmogonistic
and theistic ideas re-assert themselves even subsequent
to the knowledge of the sole reality of the atman ; while
they endeavour in various ways to bring a firm convic
tion of the reality of the external universe, such as is
derived from the empirical capacity of the intellect, into
harmony with this fundamental doctrine of the sole reality
of the atman. The fundamental doctrine is thus clothed
in the empirical forms of knowledge which are innate
within us and assert their right ; while the metaphysical
dogma is gradually more and more superseded by empirical
intellectual methods. In this way is originated a series

EMPIRICAL THEORIES

237

of conceptions which, following up what has already been
said, we propose here at the close briefly to survey :
they remodel the original idealism into the theories of
pantheism, cosmogonism, theism, atheism and deism.

(1) Idealism. — The atman is the sole reality; with
the knowledge of it all is known ; there is no plurality
and no change. Nature which presents the appearance
of plurality and change is a mere illusion (mdyd}.

(2) Pantheism. — The fundamental idealistic view,
whose originality and high antiquity is certified by the texts
of Yajnavalkhya, unites with the conviction of the reality
of the external universe, founded on the empirical view, to
form the doctrine which occupies the largest place in the
Upanishads. The universe is real, and yet the atman is the
sole reality, for the atman is the entire universe. We may
describe this theory as pantheistic, although in its origin it
is very different from modern pantheism. The pantheism
of the later philosophy has been developed as an inevitable
consequence from the theism of the Middle Ages ; the
pantheism of the Upanishads is founded on the attempt
to assert the doctrine of the sole reality of the atman over-
against the obtrusive reality of the manifold universe.
The Upanishads find a peculiar pleasure in identifying the
atman as the infinitely small within us with the atman
as the infinitely great outside of us.

(3) Cosmogonism. — The identity of the atman and the
universe could never be more than a mere assertion. In
order to make it intelligible, a further step was necessary
which transformed empirical methods of regarding things
into metaphysical by substituting for an identity, perpetu
ally asserted but never comprehensible, the relation of
causality that experience had made familiar, and by
conceiving the atman as cause, which produced the uni
verse from itself as effect. It then became possible to return
to the old cosmogonies, and to revive them on the basis

238 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

of the originally antagonistic Upanishad doctrine. After
creating the universe the atman enters into it as soul.
By this definition the doctrine that the atman, i.e. the
self, the soul in us, is identical with the first principle of
all things, is brought into harmony with the doctrine of
a creation of the universe out of the atman.

(4) Theism. — The doctrine that the atman created the
universe, and then as soul entered into it, is not yet theism.
This step is first taken when a distinction is drawn between
the atrnan as creator of the universe and the atman entering
into the creation, i.e. between the supreme and the indi
vidual soul. They are opposed, at first insensibly, as light
and shadow,1 then with ever-increasing clearness, until the
complete theism of the S'vetas'vatara Upanishad is attained.
It is characteristic of this work that, side by side with its
proper theism, all the preliminary steps are retained.

(5) Atheism. — By this separation of God and the soul
the existence of God himself was brought into question.
The soul was contrasted with him, existed therefore in
dependently and apart from him. The sole function
remaining for God was to fashion forth material nature as
the arena of recompense for the actions committed by the
independent souls. It was only necessary to transfer the
powers needful for this purpose to matter itself, and God
as creator of the universe would be superfluous. Hence
forward there exist only souls (purusha), burdened with
their actions and receiving recompense from birth to
birth, and the primitive matter (prakriti), which evolves
from itself perpetually anew the stage for this recompense.
This is the transition from the Vedanta doctrine of the
Upanishads to the Sankhya system, the origin of which
from the Upanishad teaching will be more closely con
sidered in the next chapter.

(6) Deism. — When from considerations of practical

1 Kuth. 3. 1.

ORIGIN OF THE SlNKHYA SYSTEM 239

convenience there is attached to the atheistic Sankhya
teaching, in a purely external manner and without affect
ing the essential principles of the system, the doctrine of
a personal god, there is produced the Yoga system, which
will be discussed later, and which is rather deistic than
theistic. It is distinguished from the deism of later times
by the fact that the latter had endeavoured to find a safe
method of eliminating from the natural order of things
God who had been retained only nominally as cause of
the universe ; while the Yoga was concerned to restore the
conception of God already eliminated in the Sankhya to
a system which had been devised without it. The two
methods lead to the same result. The system stands by
itself ; and the conception of God is preserved side by side
with it, but exerts no further influence on its teaching.

X. THE ORIGIN OF THE SANKHYA SYSTEM

1. Brief Survey of the Doctrine of the Sdhkhya

The rise of the Sankhya system, the authorship of
which is attributed to the entirely mythical Kapila, is
one of the most difficult and obscure problems in the
region of Indian philosophy. Our previous investigations
will enable us to face this question from the right
standpoint. It will be shown that the Sankhya in all its
component parts has grown out of the Vedanta of the
Upanishads, and is nothing more than an extreme carrying
out of the realistic tendency, whose appearance and
gradually increasing influence we have already traced
within the limits of Upanishad teaching itself, in the
pantheistic cosmogonistic and theistic changes of the
fundamental idealistic view. We premise a brief summary
of the leading points of the later Sankhya teaching, since
this is essential for the understanding of what follows.

240 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

The fundamental conception and ultimate assumption
of the system is the dualism of prakriti (nature) and
purusha (spirit). There exist together with and in one
another from eternity two entirely distinct essences, but
no attempt even is made to derive them from a higher
unity or to trace them back to it.

( 1 ) The purusha, already existing from the first as a
plurality, the knowing subject, as it is disengaged from
and contrasted with all that is objective.

(2) The prakriti (pradhdnam), comprising everything
that is not purusha or subject, everything therefore which
in any way has merely an objective existence, whether it
is still undeveloped (avyaktam, natura naturans), or
already developed (vyaktam, natura naturata).

Purusha and prakriti, subject and object, are closely
connected together from eternity, or rather appear to be
so, and the sufferings of existence are dependent on this
apparent connection, the removal of which the Sankhya
system sets before itself as its proper aim.

This object is attained as soon as the purusha re
cognises its entire distinctness (viveka) from the prakriti.
This separateness has existed in fact from the beginning,
but unknown to itself; when once this knowledge has been
gained, none of the sufferings of the universe are any
longer its sufferings. But they are also no longer those
of prakriti, since all the latter's sufferings, as soon as it
ceases to be "reflected" in the purusha, or "enlightened"
by him, are no longer experienced and consequently are
no longer sufferings. Deliverance is found in the dissolu
tion of this bond between purusha and prakriti, which has
an only apparent existence from eternity. For the
purusha this consists merely in its ceasing to illuminate
the sufferings of prakriti ; for prakriti, on the other hand,
in that its sufferings are no longer illuminated, con
sequently are no longer experienced, and therefore cease

DOCTRINE OF THE SlNKHYA 241

to be sufferings. Deliverance is therefore an event which
does not concern the purusha (to it nothing happens), but
the prakriti ; whence is derived the assertion, strange at
first sight, that " not the purusha, but the prakriti only is
fettered, is a wanderer, and delivered." l

This process of deliverance is to be conceived as in
dividual.^ There are a multitude of purushas existing from
the beginning. Borne of these attain to knowledge, others
do not ; the prakriti which is attached to the one gains
deliverance, but not that which is bound to the other.
The inference is that for prakriti also the process of
deliverance is not cosmical but psychical and individual.
The plurality of purushas involves a plurality if not of
the prakriti, yet of that element in it which enters into
activity. Behind the prakriti again, individualised as the
lihgam, stands the universal cosmical prakriti, of which
no further mention is made. In any case, the entire
process, which we have now to describe, is to be conceived
as repeated for each individual purusha, and therefore as
psychical and individual.

The prakriti, in order to bring about in the purusha
the recognition of its distinctness, and therewith its own
release, unfolds itself repeatedly before the eye of the
purusha. Since the purusha is individual, the self-
unfolding of the prakriti, which ceases in the case of the
purushas that have been delivered, but is perpetually
renewed in the case of the imprisoned ones until they
gain deliverance, must be conceived as individual. It
consists in the evolution of the MaJidn (the Buddhi, " the
great," "the consciousness") from the prakriti, of the
Ahankdra (the "I-maker") from the Mohan, and from
the Ahankdra on the one hand manas and the ten
indriyas (the organs of knowledge and of action), and on
the other hand the five tanmdtras (subtle elements), and

1 Sankhya-karika 62.
16

24 2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

from these finally the five bMtas (elements). The follow-
in^ scheme may serve to mark the relation : —

Prakriti

Lin- / Mahdn (Buddhi)

I
Ah&hkdra

Tanmdtras Manas and 10 Indriyas.

5 Bhutas.

The eighteen first products of prakriti, viz. —
a/tankdra, tnanas, indriyas, and tanmdtras, form the
subtle body, which surrounds the soul, and accompanies it
on all its wanderings. It is termed lihgam, because it is the
" mark " l)y which the different purushas are distinguished ;
for in themselves these collectively are mere knowing sub
jects and nothing more, and would consequently be com
pletely identical and indistinguishable, if they had not
their proper lingas (empirical characteristics), differing
from one another. All lingas of course originate from the
one prakriti ; but the latter consists of the three gunas
(best translated "factors" ; cp. gunayati, "to multiply")
sattvam (the light, clear, intellectual), rajas (the active,
strenuous, emotional), and tamas (the dark, gloomy, inert) ;
and the different qualities of the lingas depend upon the
different combination of the three gunas. The proportion
of the three gunas in the lihgam appears to vary, and to
this cause are due the fifty bhdvas or states of the lihgam.

Every life-history is a new self-unfolding of the prakriti
before the purusha concerned by means of the lihgam.
From the tanmatras contained in the lihgam arise (afresh,

DOCTRINE OF THE SlNKHYA 243

as we must suppose, at each self-unfolding, each life-
history) the bhiitas or gross elements (ether, wind, fire,
water, earth). The consequence is (l) that each purusha,
as it has its own lingam, possesses also its own gross world
of matter, arising out of it; and (2) that for the purusha
which has gained deliverance, since there is no further
unfolding of the lingam, no gross world of matter any
longer exists. So that the Sankhya system also is
essentially idealistic, strenuous opponents as its inter
preters are of the idealism of the Buddhists.

Certainly behind the individual unfoldings of prakriti
by mahdn, ahahkdra, manas, etc., there must exist a
corresponding general unfolding of a cosmical mahdn,
ahahkdra, manas, etc. Yet this thought occurs quite
incidentally, plays no part, and seems like a forced conces
sion to realism. It is impossible in fact to see what
purpose it would serve, since each lingam evolves from
itself afresh in each life-history the five gross elements,
and therefore the external world of matter.

The original purpose of the system appears to have
been different. The entrance of the ahankdra or " I-
maker " into the order of development points to this, and
is only intelligible if it is in it that the transition lies from
an evolution that is universal and cosmical to one that is
psychical. The prakriti common to all is undoubtedly
cosmical, and the buddhi also seems to be cosmical, as
its name mahdn, " the great," indicates, as the intelligence
that issues from the unconscious and sustains the pheno
menal universe ; * a psychical offshoot of it however as indi
vidual buddhi is introduced into the lingam. The essential
element of the lingam is therefore the ahankdra, as the
principle of individualisation, from which are derived on
the one hand the individual intelligence (manas and the
indriyas), on the other hand the tanmdtras, and from

1 The Hiranyagarbha of the Vedanta.

244 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the latter the gross elements, renewed for each individual.
When finally the interpreters justify the series buddhi,
ahahkdra, manas by pointing out that the manas frames
the ideas, the ahahkdra appropriates them to itself
individually, and the buddhi stamps them as resolves
(adhyavasdya], a dependence of the buddhi on ahankdra
and manas would be inferred ; which again would lead us
to expect precisely the reverse genealogical succession.

The more closely this system is investigated the more un
satisfactory and incomprehensible from a philosophical point
of view will it be found to be. The whole becomes intelligible
for the first time when we regard it as the final resultant and
the blending together of a series of very heterogeneous ideas,
which have been handed down from earlier times, and the
origin of which we propose now to point out in detail.

2. Origin of Dualism

As there can be, to use popular language, only one
God and no more, so it is involved in the nature of a
philosophical principle to be a unity, from which the
variety of the phenomenal universe is derived. It follows
that monism is the natural standpoint of philosophy, and
wherever dualism has appeared in its history it has
always been the consequence of antecedent stress and
difficulty, and as it were a symptom of the wane of the
philosophising spirit ; just as the dualism of Empedokles,
Anaxagoras and Democritus was occasioned by the
apparently irreconcilable opposition of the doctrines of
Heracleitus and Parmenides, and the dualism of Descartes
had its ultimate source in the unnatural separation of the
abstract and the concrete representations (cogitatio and
extensio), which began with Plato and Aristotle. In a
similar way the dualism of the Sankhya doctrine also cannot
be regarded as a primitive view of nature ; for how should
two principles like purusha and prakriti, distinct from

ORIGIN OF DUALISM 245

first to last, be accidentally lighted upon in infinite space
and infinite time, and further be so marvellously suited
to one another that they could unite to evolve a
universe ? The result attained is rather to be conceived
as the consequence of a natural disintegration of the
doctrine of the Upanishads, as we propose now to show.

The thought of the Upanishads in its pantheistic form
asserted, as above shown, that Brahman created the
universe and then as soul entered into it.1 The individual
soul is in no respect different from Brahman, but is very
Brahman complete and entire. Individuality as much
as the plurality of souls is mere appearance. This
appearance however is transformed into reality as the
method of empirical knowledge gains acceptance. Pan
theism becomes theism, according to which the individual
soul makes its appearance over-against the supreme soul
with a reality of its own, and the result is the plurality
of individual souls, — the first dogma which divides the
Sankhya from the Vedanta, and consequently the first
reductio ad absurdum of this theory of the universe.
For the soul remains as before, in accordance with
Yajnavalkhya's teaching, the knowing subject. A
plurality of knowing subjects ! What philosophical mind
can admit this thought ? The knowing subject is in me
(aliam bralima asmi) and nowhere else, for everything
beside me is object, and for this very reason not subject.

A further consequence of theism is atheism. The divi
sion of the atman into supreme and individual souls must
lead to the destruction of the one branch, the supreme
soul, since it had derived its vital force solely from the
atman existing in me, which indeed alone exists. After
its separation from the latter it could only with difficulty
be maintained at all. No more was necessary than to
transfer the creative faculties (the gunas, viz. — sattvam,

1 tat srishtvd tad eva anuprdvis'at, Taitt. 2. 6.

246 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

rajas and tamas) to matter itself, and God became
.superfluous. The S'vet. Up. protests in vain against
the irruption of the realistic tendency, in vain asserts
that it is the divine power that lies hidden in its own
gunas,1 that the threads of the web of the pradhdnas
proceed only from God,2 that indeed the entire prakriti is
only an illusion wrought by God.3 When the existence of
God was no longer certified by my atman, the attestation
of him in general ceased to be sufficiently strong to prevent
his being abandoned by the unscrupulous realism of the
Sarikhya ; and in this way from the ancient trinity (god,
universe, and soul), which was in reality a unity,4 the
dualism of prakriti and purusha originated. Nothing
further could then be determined as to their origin, or
how they came to be so suited to one another as to be
able to combine for a common end, as the strong man
blind and the lame man with sight.6

3. Origin of the Evolutionary Series

As early as the cosmogony of the Rigveda there usually
appears at the head of the development of the universe a
triad of principles, in so far as (1) the primal being evolves
from out of himself, (2) primitive matter, and himself
takes form in the latter as (3) the first-born of creation.6
This series of the three first principles, which becomes
more and more typical, is the ultimate basis of the
three highest principles of the Sankhya,-— (l) purusha
(2) prakriti, and (3) mahdn (buddhi) ; except that the
purusha, in consequence of its division into supreme and
individual souls, and the consequent inevitable destruction
of the first (the primal being), continues to exist only in

1 S'vet. 1. 3. 2 R'vet. 6. 10.

8 S'vet. 4. 10, mfiydm tu prakritim vidydd, mdyinam tu mahes'varam.
4 S'vet. 1. 7. 12, etc. 5 Siinkhya-karika -21.

8 Hiranyayarbha, llrahinan ; sup. p. 182f.

EVOLUTIONARY SERIES 247

its derivatives, the individual souls. And these last as such
are no longer a first principle, but, as was shown in the
previous section, appear in co-ordination contrasted with
the prakriti. An early foreshadowing of this view may
be found already in Brih. 1. 4. 6, when it is said : — "This
only, food and eater, is this entire universe." These words
are at any rate interpreted of prakriti and purusha in the
oldest exposition of the Sankhya philosophy known to
us l in a chapter which by the direct contrast it sets up
between purusha and prakriti opposes itself not only to
the teaching of the Upanishads, even where a tendency
towards the Sankhya is already observable, but also to
the remaining parts of the same Upanishad.2 This origin
of the three highest principles of the Sankhya explains
also the phenomenon which was formerly unintelligible,
that the intellectual element, after having been assigned
to the purusha (the knowing subject), and therefore
apparently dismissed, re-appears on the objective side
as buddhi or mahdn, i.e. " the great." This term appears
(as far as we know) in all the passages where the gender
can be determined to be masculine,3 and is found as early
as the Upanishads. So perhaps in the verse quotation
Kaush. 1. 7 in the form rishir brahmamayo mahdn ; as
the mahdn dtmd of Kath. 3. 10, 13 and 6. 7 ; as the
agryah purusho mahdn of S'vet. 3. 19, understanding
the expression to mean " the first arisen great purusha,"
and therefore identifying it with the hiranyagarbha of
3. 4, 4. 12, the rishih kapilah agre prasutali of 5. 2, the
jnah sarvagah of 6. 17, and the Brahman of 6. 18, to
whom the primal being delivered the Vedas, and from
whom ancient wisdom has issued forth in 4. 18. It is, as
a comparison of these passages proves, Hiranyagarbha,

1 Maitr. 6. 10. 2 e.g. 5. 2 and 6. 11-13.

3 It occurs mostly in compounds as mahad-ddi, mahat-tattvam, "the
essence of the great/'

248 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

first-born in Rigv. X. 121 from the primeval waters, the
intelligent principle of the universe, the mind as sustainer
of the phenomenal universe, which divested of my thological
form comes forth in the Sankhya as the mahdn, the cosmical
buddhi, from the prakriti. From this in turn the
ahanhira as the individual principle is evolved, on which
again depend the individual organs of knowledge (manas
and indriyas}, and their objects (tanmdtras, bMtas). By
its entrance into the liiigam (the psychical organism) the
mahan or buddhi acquires a psychical significance as the
organ of judgement by the side of its original cosmical
meaning.

At the basis of the entire formation of this series
appears to be the thought that evolution from the
primeval being adopts the same order as the return into
it, only in a reverse direction. Now the Upanishads teach
a threefold return into Brahman, — (l) in sleep, (2) in
death, and (3) in yoga ; and in the description of this
threefold entrance into Brahman all the principles
gradually come to light which in the evolutionary
scheme of the Sankhya are united into one. We will
establish this in a few leading passages.

( 1 ) In the deep sleep, which is an entrance into Brah •
man, according to Chfind. 4. 3. 3, speech, eye, ear and
manas enter into the prana ; and according to Pras'na
4, in dream-sleep the indriyas enter into manas, and both
in deep sleep into the tejas. In the words that follow1 the
entrance of the five bhutas and the five tanmatras into
the atman is described, together with the five organs of
knowledge and the five of action, and also manas, buddhi,
ahankara,c'ittam, tejas, prana, and the functions that belong
to them. It is not expressly stated that the order of
entrance corresponds to the series given from last to first,
but on the analogy of other passages it is quite admissible.

* Pras'na 4. 7 if.

EVOLUTIONARY SERIES

249

(2) At death, according to Chand. 6. 8. G,1 speech
enters into manas, manas into prana, prana into tejas,
tejas into the supreme godhead. Just as here by speech
all the indriyas are apparently intended, so by tejas we
seem to be obliged to understand all the three primeval
elements (tejas, dpas, annam, of which indeed, according to
Chand. 6. 5. 4, speech, prana and manas consist), which, as
we shall see later, have been developed into prakriti with
its three gunas.

(3) In yoga, according to Kath. 3. 10-13,2 the senses
and their objects are absorbed into manas, the latter
into buddhi ( =jndnd dtmd = sattvam), this again into
mahdn dtmd, and this finally into avyaktam ( = s'dnta
dtmd), by which means the purusha is isolated from them
all, and its deliverance is effected. We should thus obtain
for the return into the first principle at death yoga and
deep sleep respectively the following succession : 3—

AT DEATH
(Chand. 6. 8. 6).

para devatd

tejas (dpas, annam)

prana

manas
vac' (etc.)

IN YOGA
(Kath. 3. 10-13, 6. 7-11).

purusha

avyaktam (s'dnta1 dtmari)

( mahdn dtmd
\ buddhi

manas

arthdh and indriydni

IN DEEP SLEEP
(Pras'iia 4. 7).

dtman
(prdna
\tejas
C c'ittam
\ ahankdra
{buddhi

manas

tanmdtra, bhuta, indriya

With these steps of the involution into the primeval
essence (that are found at death, in deep sleep, and in
yoga) should be compared the steps of the evolution of
things from the primeval essence, as they appear first in
Mund. 1. 1. 8-9, 2. 1. 2-3 (not yet perfectly distinct, a

1 cp. 6. 15. 2.

2 Katli. 6. 7-11 is in essential agreement.
8 The order in Pras'iia 4 is doubtful.

250 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

few points remaining doubtful) and in a more intelligible
form in the later Sankhya r1-

Mun.J. 1. 1. 8-9. Mum]. ± I. 2-3. The Later Sankhya.

yah sarvajnah. sarvavid purusha )

annam ( = avydknta,n, aksharam \prakntt \\ purusha

Sank.)

prdva ( = Hiranyagarbha, prdna f mahan

' S'ank.) I nliaMra

inanas ma)ias, and tanmdtra manas and indriyas

organs of sense
satyam, lokdh, karmdtii the elements bhtitas

A comparison of these tables renders it very probable
that the true motive for the order of evolution in the
Sankhya doctrine is, together with the triad of first
principles adopted from the Rigveda (primal being,
primitive matter, Hiranyagarbha, which become purusha,
prakriti and mahan), the succession of entrance into
Brahman in deep sleep, death and yoga, which is taught
in the Upanishads. And thus it becomes intelligible that
when the later followers of the Sankhya endeavour to
justify their order by the psychological process in learning,
they can do it only in an artificial way that from a
philosophical point of view is unsatisfactory.

4. Origin of the Doctrine of the Gunas

The most characteristic feature of the Sankhya system
is the doctrine of the three gunas, which depends upon
the thought that the three forces that are active in the
psychical organism, viz. — sattvam, rajas and tamas (which
approaches the modern distinction of sensibility, irrit
ability and reproduction) are also present in prakriti, and
constitute its entire substance.2 Novel as this doctrine

1 First perhaps in Maitr. 6. 10.

2 The prakriti is in essence nothing but potentiality (therefore nvytiktam),
i.e. the aggregate of the three factors (yuna, formed after dviyuna, triguna, etc.,

DOCTRINE OF THE GUNAS 251

appears on its first introduction in the SVetas'vatara
Upanishad,1 it yet depends upon older premisses. \Ve
begin accordingly with the verse SVet. 4. 5 : 2-

Thc one she-goat, red and white and blackish,
Casts many young, which are fashioned like to her ;
The one ram leaps on her in the ardour of love,
The other ram abandons her, his companion.

That this verse expresses the fundamental thought of
the Sankhya doctrine is not open to question. The
manifold relations of the many purushas to the one
prakriti cannot be more effectively illustrated than by the
manifold relations of the many rams to the one she-goat.
Under these circumstanc.es the reference of the description
of the she-goat as "red, white and black" (lokita-s'ukla-
krishna, according to the reading of S'ankara) to the
three gunas of which prakriti consists is inevitable. At
the same time however these three expressions, both by
the names themselves and by their order, which according
to the Sankhya doctrine ought to be different, point back
to Chand. 6. 4, where everything in the universe is shown
to consist of the three elements (which have proceeded
from the one existing being), heat, water and food. There
is present in all things (fire, sun, moon and lightning are
given as examples) the red (loliita) heat, the white (s'ukla)
water, and the black (Jcrishna) food. The recurrence of
these expressions in the same order in SVet. 4. 5 proves
that they are beyond question correctly referred by
Badarayana and S'ankara3 to Chand. 6. 4. We must

cp. gunayati, to multiply), which are involved in all existing things ; and
all psychical organisms (linga) together with material nature (bhdta), which
is merely their foil, are derived from the various combinations of these
(anyonya-alhibhava-ds'raya-janana-mithuna). Everything that is is therefore
a product of sattvam (joy, (£iXi'a), rajas (pain, vflKos), and tamas (indifference,
apathy).

1 I. 3, 4. 5, 5. 7, G. 3-4, 6. 11, 6. 16.

2 =Mahanar. 10. 5. * Sutra 1. 4. 8-10.

252 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

nevertheless agree with the opponent whom S'ankara
introduces in referring the verse with the following words
to the Sankhya doctrine : — " In this verse by the words
' red and white and black ' are to be understood rajas,
sattvam and tamas. The red is rajas (emotion), because
it naturally makes red (puts into agitation, ranjayati) ;
the white is sattvam (essentiality, good), because it
naturally makes bright ; the black is tamas (darkness),
because it naturally darkens. It is the equilibrium of
these gunas, which is described here according to the
quality of the parts of which it consists as ' red and
white and black.' And because this is primitive it is
called ajd (the she-goat, and also 'the unborn'), while
the followers of the Sankhya say of it, — ' primeval nature
creates, but is not created.' l . . . That primitive substance
therefore brings forth many young endowed with the
throe gunas ; and of it is it said that the one unborn (or
ram, ((j«), i.e. the one purusha, 'cherishes' (leaps upon)
' her in the ardour of love,' in inclination, attachment ;
while lie in consequence of ignorance regards her as his
own self, and accordingly from inability to distinguish
looks upon himself as the vehicle of lust, indifference and
blindness (which compose the essence of sattvam, rajas
and tamas), and therefore remains ensnared in the
migration of souls ; while on the contrary another
' unborn,' i.e. a purusha, who has gained the knowledge
of difference and is no longer attached to it (' it,' that is
to say, the primeval substance), ' abandons ' her, ' the
companion,' whose enjoyment has come to an end ; he
therefore abandons her, that is to say, he is delivered from
her."

In this controversy both sides are right. The
Vedantist, inasmuch as the verse unquestionably refers
back to Chand. 6. 4 ; and the Sankhyist, inasmuch as the

1 Sankhya- ktirika 3.

DOCTRINE OF THE GUN AS 253

three constituent elements, which according to Chand. 6.
2 proceed from the ' one without a second,' and of a
mixture of which everything in the universe consists,
have been psychologically transformed into the three
gunas. These three likewise are the primal elements,
only that each of these primal elements has become the
vehicle and expression of one of the three fundamental
psychical forces which rule in our inner being. Since the
word guna (factor) would apply equally well to the primal
elements and the primal forces (there is implied in it
nothing more than that everything which originates
from the primeval substance is " threefold," trigunam) ;
and since in all the passages of the SVet. Up., in which it
occurs for the first time,1 it may very well be understood
still as fundamental element in the sense of Chand. 6. 2,
and the related verse SVet. 4. 5, nothing prevents us
from assuming that that transformation of the three
primal elements into three primal forces, — or rather, the
conception of each of the three primal elements as vehicle
of a definite primal force, — has been first developed later
on in direct connection with the above verse.2 The
process was completed with and by the introduction of
the names sattvam, rajas and tamas, which in the sense
here in question are not authenticated earlier than Maitr.
3. 5, 5. 2, etc.3

5. Origin of the Doctrine of Emancipation
Both Vedanta and Sankhya proclaim as their funda
mental view the proposition : — Deliverance is gained by
knowledge. This proposition is in harmony throughout
with the assumptions of the Vedanta teaching, but not
with those of the Sankhya.

According to the doctrine of the Upanishads, the\atman

1 1. 3, 4. 5, 5. 7, 6. 3-4, 6. 11, 6. 16. 2 SVet.

3 On Atharvav. X. 8. 43, cp. Allgemeine Einleituny, p. 324.

254 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

alone is real. The manifold universe is an illusion. This
illusion is penetrated by the awakening of knowledge,
and it is in this that deliverance consists. Here all is
perfectly consistent.

It is otherwise in the Sankhya. Here matter is as
truly real as the soul, and therefore cannot be recognised
by the latter as an illusion, as in the Vedanta. The
illusion, which has to be penetrated, is concerned in this
case solely with the union between prakriti and purusha.
This thought however cannot be sustained from a philo
sophical point of view. For a union cither really subsists,
or it does not. If it is real no advance of knowledge can
lead to a dissolution of the union, but at the most to a
clear consciousness of it, whereby however it is still
far from being dissolved. The keen sword of knowledge
can cleave the mist of an illusion, but cannot sever an
actually existing union. If, on the other hand, the union
between the two realities purusha and prakriti is not real,
it has no existence at all. It is then not true that purusha
" enlightens " prakriti, not true that prakriti " is reflected "
in purusha ; and this illumination or reflection may not
be employed to explain the phenomenon of suffering, for
it does not itself exist.

The pessimism also by which the Sankhya system is
dominated testifies to the derivative character of its theory
of emancipation. Even the ancient Upanishads occasion
ally refer to the painful nature of existence,1 and according
to them too with the illusion of empirical existence the
possibility of the suffering involved in it disappears.2
This however is still only an indirect result, and the chief
stress is laid on the deliverance from natural avidyd by
the knowledge of the atman. It is otherwise in the
further course of development. The pessimistic view

1 ato 'nyad drtam, Erili. 3. 4. 2, 3. 5. 1, 3. 7. 23.

2 tarati s'okam dtmavid, Chanel. 7. 1. 3.

EMANCIPATION 255

comes increasingly to the front. It occupies a greater
space already in Kath. 1, a still greater in the speech of
Brihadratha in Maitr. 1. The climax of this pessimistic
movement is reached in the Sankhya system, which
regards philosophy as a whole as no more than a search
for means to avert the threefold suffering.1 Such a stand
point, where it makes its appearance in philosophy, is
everywhere a symptom of exhaustion. Philosophy is
originally based on a pure desire for knowledge, and
knows no other aim than the search for truth. Only
when this desire is weakened does philosophy become a
mere means to an end, a remedium for the suffering of
existence. This was the case in Greece in the schools
that succeeded Aristotle ; it was so also in India in the
Sankhya system and in Buddhism.

1 Sankhya-karikd 1.

THIRD PART OF THE SYSTEM OF THE
UPANISHADS

PSYCHOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE SOUL

XL THE SUPREME AND THE INDIVIDUAL SOULS

1. The Theory of the later Veddnta

THE Vedanta of S'ankara and his school makes a
distinction between the supreme soul (paramdtman) and
a multitude of individual souls (jiva dtman, s'drira
dtman). The former is omniscient, omnipotent, omni
present ; the latter are limited in wisdom, power
and capacity of movement. The former is neither
active nor passive, and is therefore free from the
very beginning ; the latter are active and receptive,
and are therefore entangled in the eternal round of
samsara, and stand in need of deliverance. Yet the
individual atmans are not properly distinct from the
supreme fit man. Each of them is in full and complete
measure the supreme fitman himself, as he manifests
himself, though his real nature is concealed by the
upddhis (manas, indriyas, etc.). These upddhis are
unable to change his real nature, as little as
the purity of the rock crystal is destroyed by the
red colour with which it is externally smeared.
Rather is it solely avidyd, ignorance, which imposes
the upadhis on the supreme atman, and thus comes to
regard him as an individual atman. Accordingly the

SUPREME AND INDIVIDUAL SOULS 257

entire individual soul as such has no reality, and yet
the system cannot avoid treating it as a reality, and
discussing in detail its organs and attributes, its wander
ing and final deliverance. This internal contradiction
inherent in the system, as well as the designation of two
different and yet not different entities by the one word
atman, points to the conclusion that the whole theory of
a twofold soul, supreme and individual, is of secondary
origin. We have now to trace its rise in the Upanishads.

2. Originally only one Soul

The texts of the oldest Upanishads do not recognise
two souls, but only one. " It is thy soul, which is within
all." l He who while dwelling in the earth, the water, the
fire, in space, wind, heaven, sun, etc., is distinct from them,
whose body they are, who rules them all from within, " he
is thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal. He sees but
is not seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is
not comprehended, knows but is not known ; there is
none beside him that sees or hears or comprehends or
knows." ! This atman who alone exists is the knowing
subject in us, and as such sustains the whole universe
of conceptions, in which is everything and beyond which
nothing, and with the knowledge of the atman therefore all
is known.3 This is the point of view of pure idealism,
which denies the existence of a manifold universe, and
of everything outside the knowing subject. It becomes
pantheism, when it concedes a relative existence to
the universe, but identifies this entire universe with
the atman, the knowing subject. Such an identi
fication however, often as it is repeated, is always
very obscure, and in order to bring it within the range of
empirical comprehension a return is effected to the old
cosmogony, and it is taught that the atman created

1 Brill. 3. 4. 1, 3. 5. 1. * B}.ih 3 7 3_23

17

258 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the universe and then entered into it as soul : — anena
jivena dtmand anupravis'ya.1 Here for the first time we
meet with the word jiva dtman, which later denotes " the
individual soul " as contrasted with the supreme. But
no such contrast yet exists here. It is the atman himself
who alone exists and creates the universe, who as jiva
dtman enters into the universe that he has created.
Neither from the point of view of pure idealism, nor in its
empirical varieties of pantheism and cosmogonism, does
any opposition exist between the supreme and individual
souls. The contrast between them is first seen at the
moment in which the atman who creates the universe and
then enters into his creation becomes a duality, the parts
of which are set over-against one another. We have
described this further accommodation to the empirical
consciousness as theism, since here the original unity of
the atman is divided into God and the soul.

3. The Individual Souls by the side of the Supreme
All the Upanishads, even the oldest, when they discuss
the conditions of bondage in the samsdra and of deliver
ance therefrom, distinguish between the imprisoned soul and
that which has been delivered, between the soul entering
on deliverance and that to which it enters in ; and thus
often enough a poetical personification of the two condi
tions is arrived at, as of the souls imprisoned in saiiisara,
and of the divine emancipated souls. An example is
furnished by Chand. 3. 14. 4 :— " To him shall I departing
hence enter in " ; or Kaush. 1 , where a description is
given how the souls that reach the other world appear
before the throne of Brahman (masc.), and are questioned
by him with regard to their knowledge. The answer
however that is rendered : 2 — " The self of every being art
thou, and what thou art, that am I," proves that these

1 Chund. 6. 3. 2. a Kaush. 1. 6.

SUPREME AND INDIVIDUAL SOULS 259

poetical contrasts remain throughout dominated by the
consciousness of the unity of the atman. A real dis
tinction between the individual and the supreme soul is
first found in those texts in which the latter becomes
concrete in the idea of a personal god over-against the
souls, whose "grace" then is the condition of deliverance.
This first occurs, as we saw before, in the Kathaku
Upanishad, and in harmony with this we meet the first
real distinction of supreme and individual souls in
Kath. 3. 1 :—

Two, quaffers of the recompense for their deeds,

Yonder in the other world, entered into the pit ;

Light and shadow are they called by him who knows Brahman.

The unity of the two souls here distinguished is ex
pressed in the fact that the " quaffing of the recompense "
which is true only of the individual souls is ascribed to
both, and also that the supreme soul is designated as the
light, to which the individual soul clings as mere unsub
stantial shadow.1 On this passage Pras'na 3. 3 probably
depends : — " From the atman this prana originates ; as
the shadow on a man, so it projects itself on the other."
In the words that immediately follow 2 we meet also for
the first time with the description of the individual soul as
the Ihoktar, the " enjoyer," that through the whole course
of life has to enjoy, i.e. to expiate the fruit of the works
of the preceding life. This enjoyer, the individual soul,
results from the union of the atman (the supreme soul)
with the organs, manas and the indriyas.3 The description
of the individual soul as bhoktar recurs in S'vet. 1.8,9,12;
5. 7. The borrowing from Kath. 3. 4 is, to judge from the
entire relation of the two works, quite beyond doubt.
Precisely the same contrast between individual and
supreme souls is stated with remarkable heightening of the

1 cp. Kath. 6. 5. 2 K^ 3 4

26o THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

effect in S'vet. 4. 6-7,1 adapting the verse Rigv. I.
1 64. 20 : 2—

Two fair-plumaged close friends

Surround one and the same tree ;

One of them tastes the sweet berries,

The other, without eating, only gazes downwards.8

To such a tree the spirit sunk down

In its impotence mourns, a prey to delusion,

Yet when it worships and beholds of the other

The omnipotence and majesty, then its grief departs.

The entire adhyaya, S'vet. 5, serves as a further exposi
tion of this contrast. Here, to begin with, vv. 2-G depict
the supreme soul, how at the beginning it gave birth to
Iliranyagarbha (kapila rishi) as first-born, how it ever
expands and contracts the web of the broad universe, how
as Is'vara exacting recompense it makes to grow and
brings to maturity the fruit of all works. Then follows
in vv. 7-12 the description of the " other " (the expression
links itself with the verses 4, 7 already quoted), i.e. the
individual soul : —

7. The doer of works of inevitable result, abundant in fruit,
Yea and the enjoy er of that which he does,

He wanders as lord of life, in every form,

Wrought of the three gunas, on triple path, even according to his work.

8. An incli in height, shining like the sun,
Endowed with thought and self-consciousness,
By virtue of his buddhi, his atman,

The other appears, small as a needle's point.

9. Split a hundred times the tip of a hair,
And take therefrom a hundredth part,
That deem I the size of the soul,
And yet it wins immortality.

1 Mund. 3. 1. 1-2 also is probably dependent on it.

8 On the original meaning, cp. Allyemeine Einleitung, pp. 112, 113.

8 Rigv. I. 164. 20.

SUPREME AND INDIVIDUAL SOULS 261

10. He is neither male nor female,
And yet is he not neuter ;
Even according to the body which he chooses,
He resides in this or in that.

11. Through the delusion of thought, touch, sight,
He moves as soul, in harmony with his work,

By the eating, drinking, begetting, which he himself effects,
Changing here and there into various forms.

12. As soul he selects many gross forms,

Many subtle also, corresponding to his virtue ;

And that which fetters him by force of his deeds and self

To these, fetters him also to others.

The individual soul is here contrasted with the supreme
soul as being endowed with sankalpa (the activity of the
manas), ahankdra and buddhi, enjoying the fruit of its
action ; and is described in a descending scale as " an
inch in height," " small as a needle's point," small as the
ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair, — " and it," so it is
further said, "wins immortality"; i.e. after getting rid of
the delusion of empirical reality, we recognise this infinitely
small individual soul as identical with the infinitely
great supreme soul. The clear distinction and yet repeat
edly asserted identity of the two is already the stand
point of the later Vedanta, as it has been characterised above
at the beginning of this Chapter.

4. Reason for the Assumption of Bodily Form

If however the individual soul is a mere apparition as
compared with the supreme soul, how comes the eternally
free and blessed supreme soul to assume this apparitional
form, and as individual soul, having strayed from its true
being to become fettered, to wander and to suffer ? This
question first arises in the latest Upanishads, and the
answers to it are very indefinite and unsatisfactory.

In Pras'na 3. 1 the question is proposed : — " Whence

262 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

does this prana (the individual soul) originate, and how
does it enter into this body ? and the answer runs : — From
the atman (the supreme soul) this prana originates ; as the
shadow on a man, so he projects himself on it ; and he
enters into this body manokritena" This term S'ankara
explains as manah-sahkalpa-ic'c'hd-ddi nishpanna-kar-
manimittena, " because of his works which have origin
ated from the will, desire, etc. of the manas " ; thus
actions and imprisonment in the samsfira as their
inevitable consequence would be the result of the free will
of the soul. It must be admitted that this explanation
is disputable on grammatical grounds, since manokritena
can only be resolved as mano-(a)kritena, and would
mean,— Without assent of its will, contrary to its will
the soul is involved in the samsara.

The answer which is given to the same question in
Maitr. 3. 2, falling back upon the terminology current
later in the Sfuikhya, shows a deeper insight. After
establishing the distinction between the immortal (supreme)
atman and the natural (individual), it goes on to say

here : " Assuredly his immortal atman continues to

exist (uncontaniinatetl) like the drops of water on the
lotus flower (which only apparently assume its colouring) ;
but yet this iitmuii is overcome by the gunas of prakriti.
Being thus overcome then it falls into an illusion, and
because of this illusion it fails to recognise the august and
holy creator subsisting in itself; but torn asunder and
defiled by the stream of gunas it becomes without
support, weak, broken down, sensual, disordered, and
a prey to delusion fancies 'This is I,' 'This is mine,'
and fetters itself by its own action, as a bird by its nest."

Finally the verse may be quoted which forms the con
clusion of the Maitr. Up. 7. 11 :-

To taste of reality and illusion
The great Self becomes twofold.

ORGANS OF THE SOUL 263

According to this the individual soul would be dependent
on the desire of the supreme soul to experience the illusion
of a life in the world as well as eternal reality.

In ancient times therefore the same difficulties were
encountered which meet us when we search for causal
relations in a sphere which by its very nature is beyond
the reach of the entire rule of causality.

XII. THE ORGANS OF THE SOUL

1. Later View
Here also it is worth while to beinn with the teaching

O

of the later Vedanta in order then to trace in the sphere
of the Upanishads the development which led up to it.

In agreement with the views of modern physiology,
S'ankara distinguishes (I) manas and indriyas (the
organs of relation), and (2) the five prdnas (the organs
of nutrition), with which are associated as accompanying
upddhis of the soul (3) stlkshmam s'ariram, the subtle
body, and (4) a factor that changes from one birth to
another, karma, the actions of each several existence.

(l) To the brain as the central organ, and its two
dependents the sensible and the motor nerves, corresponds
the relation of manas (mind and conscious will) to the
fLVQJndna — indriyas, or organs of knowledge (these are,
following the order of the five elements to which they
correspond, — hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell), and
the five karma-indriyas, or organs of action (speech,
hands, feet, and the organs of generation and secretion).
The jnana-indriyas convey the impressions of the senses
to the rnanas, which manufactures them into ideas
(sankalpa). On this side therefore it corresponds to our
mind. These ideas are then formed into resolves
(sankalpa) by the manas in its function as " conscious

264 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

will," and are carried into execution by the five karma-
indriyas. The assigning a common organ (manas) for
mind and conscious will, and a common function
(sankalpa) for ideas and resolves corresponds to the
physiological fact, according to which the brain both
shapes the impressions of the sensible nerves into ideas,
and also carries into execution these ideas, so far as they
become resolves of the will, by means of the motor nerves.
Manas in S'ankara's view is the sole internal organ.
Buddlii, ahankara and cittam, which are treated as separate
organs by the Sahkhya and Yoga, are with him merely
functions of manas.1

(2) Breathing, circulation of the blood, and nourish
ment equally with the quickening of the body are the
functions of the prana, which penetrates the whole body
in its varieties as prdna, apdna, vydna, uddna and
samdna. According to S'ankara, the prdna causes
exspiration (uc'c'hvdsa), the apdna inspiration (nis'vdsa).*
The vydna sustains life when the breath is arrested.
The samdna is concerned with digestion. The uddna
effects the departure of the soul from the body at death.
According to other teachers,3 the prana serves for breath
ing, the apdna for evacuation, the vydna for quickening,
the uddna for the departure of the soul, the samdna for
the assimilation of food.

(3) A third companion of the soul in its wanderings is
the " subtle body " (sukshmam s'ariram), i.e. " the subtle
parts of the elements which form the seed of the body "
(deha-vijdni-bhfita-sdkshmdni). While the gross body is
dissolved at death, the subtle body departs with the

1 Sfttram 2. 4. 0, 2. 3. 22.

2 cp. S'ankara on (Jlmml. 1. 3. 3 : — yad vai punish ah prdniti, mukha-ndsi-
kdbhydm vdyum vahir nihsdrayati, sa prdiia-dkhyo vdyor vritti-vis'esho ; yad
apdniti, apas'vasiti, tdbhydm eva antar dkarshati vdyum, so 'pdno, 'pdna-dkhyd
vrittih (otherwise on Chand. 3. 13. 3, Pras'na 3. 5).

3 e.g. Veduntasara 94-98.

THE ATM AN AND THE ORGANS 265

organs. It is related to the gross body as the seed to
the plant, or as the functions of seeing, hearing, etc., which
depart with the soul, to the physical eye and ear.

(4) Besides this substratum of the elements (Uiuta-
ds'raya), out of which the body is built up in the follow
ing birth, the soul lastly is further attended by the
ethical substratum (karma-ds'raya), which determines
the character of the new body and life. This ethical
substratum is formed by the actions committed in the
course of each several life, and is therefore different for
each soul and for each life course. Without these factors
the souls with their organs would be indistinguishable
from one another.

2. The Atman and the Organs

" In the beginning the atman alone in the form of a
man was this universe. He gazed around ; he saw nothing
there but himself. Thereupon he cried out at the
beginning : — ' It is I.' Thence originated the name I.
Therefore to-day, when anyone is summoned, he answers
first 'It is I' ; and then only he names the other name
which he bears."1 According to this passage, the first
consciousness, and therefore the starting - point and
vehicle of all certainty is self-consciousness,2 and that for
the supreme as well as for the individual soul, for the two
are one. Only later, when this original idealism had been
obscured by the advancing realism, and a distinction had
been set up between supreme and individual soul, does
ahankdra appear among the functions or organs of the
latter,3 as though the atman the creator of the universe
were something other than the self in me ; a proposition
which to the Indians as well as to Descartes serves already

1 Brih. 1. 4. 1. 2 In Chand. 7. 25. 1 termed ahankdra.

3 For the first time in S'vet. 5. 8 and Pras'na 4. 8 ; so later on in Maitr.
2. 5, 3. 2, 6. 5, Pranagnihotra 4, Maha 1, and in the Sankhya.

266 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

as the alpha aud omega of all knowledge of the truth.
' The self is the basis (ds'raya) for the validity of proof,
and therefore is constituted also before the validity of
proof. And because it is thus formed it is impossible to
call it in question. For we may call a thing in question
which comes up (dgantuka) to us (from without), but not
our own essential being. For if a man calls it in question,
yet is it his own essential being." l This thought is found
expressed in the Upanishads, besides the passage above
quoted from Brih. 1. 4. 1, in S'vet. 1. 2 also, in so far as
it is there said : —

There are time, nature, necessity, chance,

Primitive matter, spirit,— is the union of these

As primal basis conceivable? Not so. For it, is one Self.

All the first principles proposed by other schools, time,
nature, necessity, etc., are to be abandoned, dtmabhdvdt,
because the self, the atman, is to be assumed as the first
principle of things, since it is the necessary presupposition
of them all.

This atman which in each one of us, as before the be
ginning of things is conceived as the I, as the passage from
the Brih. sets forth further from the empirical standpoint,
created the universe of names and forms, and then as soul
entered into it : — " right to the tips of the fingers " he fills
the body, and is hidden in it like the knife in the sheath
or the fire in the fuel. " Therefore he is not seen, for he
is divided ; as breathing he is called breath, as speaking
speech, as seeing eye, as hearing ear, as understanding
mind ; all these are only names for his effects."5 As eye
he is the centre (ekdyanam) of all forms, as ear the centre
of all sounds, etc.3 " When the eye directs itself into
space, it is the spirit in the eye, the eye (itself) serves
(only) for seeing ; and if a man desires to smell, that is the

1 S'ankara on Brahmasutra 2. 3. 7.

2 Brih. 1. 4. 7. 3 Brih. 2. 4. 11.

THE ATMAN AND THE ORGANS 267

atman, the nose serves only for odours," l etc. The eye is
nothing but eye, the ear nothing but ear, of that he who
knows Brahman is aware,2 and abandons the hearing of
hearing, the thought of thinking, the speaking of speech,
etc., in order to grasp that by which speech, breath, eye,
ear and manas are harnessed and dismissed to their
occupations.3 This essential identity of the organs with
the atman, when regarded empirically, appears as a
creation of them from it : — " from it originates breath, the
mind, and all the senses."' According to Chfind. G. 5,
manas, prana and speech are the most subtle product of
the elements, food, water and heat, created by the atman.
To the organs of the individual atman there correspond in
the universe the forces of nature (nature gods) as organs
of the cosmical atman. Following up the ideas, which we
learnt to know from the hymn of the purusha,5 Ait. 1. 1-2
represents the gods Agni, Vayu, Aditya, Dis', etc. as
originating from the mouth, nose, eyes, ears, etc. of the
primeval man, and these then enter into the individual
man as speech, smell, sight, hearing. According to the
Brin. Up., on the contrary, which in general prefers to
start from the individual,6 the individual organs, speech,
smell, eye, car, manas, which are born at first as children
of Prajapati, are filled with evil by the demons, and then
by the prana are led beyond the reach of evil and death,
to enjoy a continued existence as fire, wind, sun, the
heavenly regions and the moon.7 The later theory 8 of the
protectorate which the nature gods exercise over the
psychical organs depends upon conceptions of this kind.
It makes its appearance first in Brih. 4. 4. 1, where a

1 Chan d. 8. 12. 4. 2 Brih. 4. 4. 18.

3 Kena 1-2 ; cp. the paraphrase of this passage in Maitr. 0. 31.

4 Mund. 2. 1. 3.

5 Kigv. X. 90. 13-14 ; cp. Allgemeine Einleitung, p. 157.

6 cp. especially Brih. 1. 4. 6 ad fin.

7 Brih. 1. 3. 11-1G ; cp. Clmnd. 1. 2. » e.g. Pras'na 3. 8.

268 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

description is given how at death the material eye is set
free,1 and the spirit that dwells in the eye returns out
wards to the sun,2 while the psychical organ of the faculty
of sight gathers with the rest of the organs in the heart
around the soul, in order to journey forth in its company.
The names and number of the organs are still uncertain
in the older texts. In Chand. 3. 1. 3 and Brih. 6. 4. 5 f .
the word indriyam has still the meaning offeree" ; it
is first employed by Kaush. 2. 15, Kath. 3. 4 as a name
for the organs, as the physical forces in man. In the
older texts the organs collectively are called the prdnas,
the " vital breaths," by virtue of a denominatio*a potiori,
from the organ of breathing (prdna), as being the most
important and that upon which the life is dependent.
" Therefore they are not called voices, eyes, ears, minds,
but vital breaths (prdndh), for the breath (prdna) is all
of them." 3 As regards the number also of the organs, no
agreement exists. It is frequently mentioned that man,
like Prajapati in his character as the moon,4 consists of
sixteen parts. This is the case in the narrative of Chand.
6. 7.5 How little what was intended by the sixteen parts
was understood is shown by S'atap. Br. X. 4. 1. 17, where
the sixteen syllables of the words Ionian, tvac', asrij, medas,
mdmsam, sndvan, astJii, majjd (hair, skin, blood, sap, flesh,
sinew, bones, marrow) do duty as such. In Pras'na 6 the
sixteen parts are enumerated as (l) prdna, (2) s'raddhd,
faith, (3-7) the five elements, (8) indriyam, the organs of
sense considered as one, (9) manas, (10) annam, food,
(11) vinjam, strength, (12) tapas, (13) mantrdh, (14)
karman, (15) loMh, (16) ndman. The same are to be
understood in S'vet. 5. 14, according to the commentary.
It is perhaps on this sixteenfold enumeration of the parts

i Brih. 4. 3. 36. * cp. the amplifications in Brih. 3. 2. 13.

3 Chand. 5. 1. If). 4 Brih. 1.5. 14.

* cp. Mund. 3. 2. 7, Pras'na 6.

THE ATM AN AND THE ORGANS 269

of a man that the later summary of the organs as the ten
indriyas with manas and the five pranas depends. By the
"seven pranas" of Mund. 2. 18 should be understood,
as in S'atap. Br. VI. 4. 2. 5 and elsewhere, the seven
openings in the head ; these with the two lower are
described in S'vet. 3. 18 and later1 as the nine gates of
the city of the body. Adding the navel and Brahma-
randhram2 the number becomes eleven.3 An older verse 4
describes the head as a drinking bowl with the opening at
the side, on whose edges (the seven openings in the head)
seven rishis (the seven organs of sense) dwell, who are
identical with the seven guardians of the universe. A
modification of this verse 5 names speech as the eighth, and
therefore by the seventh rishi (after ears, eyes, nostrils)
vac' must again be understood as the organ of taste, and
to this the explanation that follows 6 refers.

The seven so-called openings of the head have un
doubtedly been the starting-point for the original enumera
tion of the organs of sense, as is clear from the fact that
in the texts of the older Upanishads only speech, breath
(smell), eye, ear and manas as a fifth are usually named as
organs of sense (pranas}} Where the number is fewer,
special reasons are generally present, as in Brih. 3. 1. 3-6,
where the number four is found, or Chand. 3. 13. 5, 5. 23.
2, where the surprising omissions are perhaps to be ex
plained by the fact that smell was supposed to be already
included in the five pranas.8 Where more than five
organs are named the additions are usually appended to,
or even made to precede the original speech, breath, eye,
ear, manas. Thus in Brih. 2. 5. 1-7 (s'ariram, retas), 3. 2.

1 e.g. Yogas'ikha 4, Yogatattvam 13, Bhag. G. 5. 13.

2 Ait. 1. 3. 12. 3 Kath. 5. 1. 4 Atharvav. X. 8. 9.
5 Brih. 2. 2. 3. 6 Brih. 2. 2. 4.

7 This is the case in Brih. 1. 3. 2-6, 1. 4. 7, 2. 2. 3, Chand. 1. 2. 2-6, 2. 7.
1, 2. 11. 1, 3. 18. 1-6, 8. 12. 4-5, Kena 1. 4-8.

8 cp. Taitt. 1. 7.

2;o THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

13, 3. 7. 16-23 (tvac', vijndnam, retas), 4. 1. 2-7
(hridayam).1 Brill. 3. 2. 2-9 is peculiar, where eight
organs of sense are enumerated as the eight grakas or
seizers (organ of smell, speech, tongue, eye, ear, manas,
hands, skin), to which their objects correspond as
atigrahas or over-seizers (smell, name, taste, form, sound,
desire, action, touch). The assigning here of the names
prdna and apdna severally to the organ of smell and to
smell itself will be discussed later on. The name graha
(seizer) for the organs of sense, according to S'ankara2
would signify that by them the soul is fettered to objects
(badhyate kshetrajno 'nena graha-sanjnakena bandha-
nena iti). In this may be found a confirmation of our
conjecture 3 that the later conception of the " bands of the
heart " 4 is derived from this passage or the view contained
in it, that graha and atigraha tie the knots, which are un
loosed on deliverance. The name indriyas for the organs
of sense first meets us in the Upanishads in the rite of
Kaush. 2. 15. The later enumeration of ten together with
manas is followed with one exception. In the summary at
the close they are again described by the old name ofprdnas.
The oldest passage which cites the ten later indriyas
complete, with the addition of manas and hridayam, is
Brili. 2. 4. II.6 With manas but without hridayam in
the later total of eleven they appear first in Pras'na 4. 2,
in evident contrast with the five pranas ; while in the
continuation of the passage 6 there are enumerated the five
elements, five tanmatras, ten indriyas with their objects,
together with manas, buddhi, ahankara, c'ittam, tejas and
prfina. This passage is at one and the same time the pre-

1 cp. Ait. 1. 1. 4, Kaush. 3. 5.

2 On Brahmastitra 2. 4. 6.

3 See Deussen, Upan., p. 430.

4 First in Chand. 7. 26. 2, then Kath. 6. 15, Mund. 2. 2. 8, 3. 2. 9, and as
"bands of ignorance" in Mund. 2. 1. 10.

6 =4. 5. 12. 6Pras-na4. 8.

MANAS AND THE INDRIYAS 271

cursor of the Vedanta's sixteenfold enumeration of the psy
chical organs, and of the Sankhya's twenty-five principles.

3. Manas and the Ten Indriyas

The earliest passage in which, as in the later Vedarita,
the indriyas are specified as neither more nor less than
ten, subordinated to the manas as the central organ, and
with it placed in contrast with the five pranas as the
forces of unconscious life that are active even in sleep, is
Pras'na 4. 2. As the rays of light are gathered into the
sun at sunset " so also (on falling asleep) all this becomes
one in the manas as supreme deity ; therefore it comes to
pass that then nothing is heard by a man, nothing seen,
nothing smelt, nothing tasted, and nothing felt, nothing
spoken, nothing comprehended, nothing begotten, nothing
evacuated, no motion hither and thither, but as it is said
he is asleep. Then the fires of prana awaken (prdna,
apdna, vydna, samdna, uddna, which are then further
explained) in this city (of the body)." This conception of
manas as the central organ of the faculties of knowledge
and action, of the powers of perception and conscious deter
mination, and therefore of that which we call " mind "
and " conscious will," was at first gradually elaborated.
Originally manas had a more general meaning, and in its
indefinite character corresponded nearly to our " disposi
tion," " feeling," " heart," " spirit." As such manas repre
sents not infrequently the spiritual principle in general,
and becomes sometimes a name for the first principle of
things, Brahman or the atman.1 Even in the Upanishads,
epithets of Brahman like manomaya, " consisting of
manas," are occasionally found,2 and manas is one of the

1 cp. the tendency pointed out, Allgemeine Einleitung, pp. 205, 206, to
conceive Prajapati as manas, and especially the beautiful hymn Vaj. Saiiili.
34. 1-6 (translated ib., p. 335), "which as S'ivasanJcalpa was included by
the Onpnek'hat even in the Upanishads.

2 Chand. 3. 14. 2, Brih. 5. 6. 1, Taitt. 1. 6. 1, Muncl. 2. 2. 7.

272 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

symbols under which Brahman is worshipped.1 In Ait.
3. 2 also manas appears still among the functions or
modifications of Brahman described as " consciousness "
(prajndnam) : — " what this heart and manas is, reflection,
imagination, meditation, invention, mind, insight, resolve,
purpose, desire, emotion, recollection, conception, force,
life, love, will, — all these are names of consciousness."
Nay, even in the section Kaush. 3, where generally manas
appears in its later signification as an organ side by side
with speech, sight, hearing,2 and as such is subordinated to
" consciousness " (prajnd =prdna = brahman ; cp. 3. 8 :—
" we should not seek for manas, but to know the thinker),
even here in 3. 7, in contradiction to the ordinary usage,
manas is again employed in the old way as a synonym for
"consciousness": — "For speech bereft of prajna, (con
sciousness) cannot bring any name whatever to conscious
ness, for it is said, ' My manas (mind) was elsewhere
(any air a me mano 'bJmt), therefore have I not become
conscious of that name." Precisely the same is then
further said of the remaining organs, breath, eye, ear,
tongue, etc., until the series reaches manas, where the
formula is dropped, in order to conceal the contradiction
in the double use of the word. In its second narrower
meaning as the psychical organ of conception and will
manas stands originally on a line with the organs of sense,
as is shown by the description of the organs of sense
(prdnas) quoted above, and frequently repeated as speech,
breath, eye, ear and manas. All five are subordinated to
the litman : — " As breathing he is called breath, as speaking
speech, as seeing eye, as hearing ear, as understanding
mind (manas) ; all these are only names for his effects." :

IfiUJ). p. lllf.

2 cp. 3. 3 :— " men live even without manas, for we see fools," and so in
what follows.

3 Brih. 1. 4. 7.

MANAS AND THE INDRIYAS 273

In Brih. 1. 3. 2-G all five are filled with evil by the demons,
and then by the vital breath in the mouth (dsanya prdna]
are led beyond evil and death. But the true knowledge
that every sensible perception is a work of the mind
(manas}, from which it follows that the rest of the organs
of sense are subordinated to the manas, comes to the front
in the Upanishads, appearing in the famous oft-quoted
saying of Brih. 1. 5. 3.1 " ' I was elsewhere with my mind
(manas), therefore I did not see ; I was elsewhere with
my mind, therefore I did not hear,' so it is said ; for only
with the mind do we see, and only with the mind do we
hear. Desire, judgement, doubt, belief, unbelief, firmness,
weakness, modesty, knowledge, fear, — all this is only
manas. When then anyone is touched from behind, he
knows it through the manas." This passage which is repro
duced in Maitr. 6. 3, and countless times subsequently, and
which all future ages regarded as authoritative, asserts that
the manas, although only the organ of the atman, is yet
the central organ of the entire conscious life ; which not only
as " the primary root of the five faculties of knowledge " 2
shapes into ideas 3 the impressions of sight, hearing, taste,
smell, touch, since we "see only with the mind, hear with
the mind," but stamps these ideas further as resolves of the
will (sankalpa, cp. Chand. 7. 4), so that in the latter sense
the manas becomes the organ of the will and its expression
by the five organs of action (speech, grasp, movement,
evacuation, begetting). " For by the manas is a man im
pelled towards his wife, and begets with her a son, who
is like him";4 "And when a man directs his manas
to the study of the sacred hymns and sayings, then he

1 Forming a counterpart to the verse of Epicharmus :— vovs 6pfj Kal vovs
dKOvfi, ruAAa Kuxpa /cat rv<p\d.

2 pafic'a-buddhi-ddimdlam, S'vet. 1. 5.

3 sankalpa = " the definition of a presented object as black, white etc " •
S'ankara on Brih. 1. 5. 3.

4 Brih. 4. I. 6.

18

274 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

studies them ; or to the accomplishment of works, then he
accomplishes them ; or to the desire for sons and cattle,
then he desires them ; or to the desire for the present and
the future world, then he desires them." Accordingly
in Taitt. 2. 3 also, of the purusha consisting of manas
(manomaya) " the Yajus is the head, the Ric' is the right
side, the Saman the left side," etc. ; because the sacrificial
cult depends upon the Vedas, and this is founded on the
selfish desires of the gods for offerings, and of men for the
blessings of the gods. The superiority of manas to the
indriyas is further expanded in Kath. 6. 7 : — " Manas stands
higher than the senses"; and in Kath. 3. 3, where the
senses are represented as the horses yoked to the waggon
of the body, but the manas as their bridle. This illustra
tion is changed in a sense still more favourable to the
manas in Maitr. 2. 6, where the organs of knowledge
(buddhi-indriydni) are the five reins, the organs of action
(karma indriydni} are the horses, the manas is the driver,
and the prakriti his whip. By means of this manas drives
the organs of action (speech, grasp, movement, evacuation,
begetting) to their work, and they are then guided and
controlled by manas by means of the organs of knowledge
(sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch). Later passages which
exhibit manas side by side with the buddhindriydni and
karmendriydni are Garbha 4 and Pranagnihotra 4.
Mention is made in Maha 1 of ten indriydni with manas
as an eleventh. Their ten functions are already named
in the passage quoted above from Pras'na 4. 2. An
enumeration of the ten corresponding organs is not found
within our recollection earlier than Manu 2. 89 f.

5. The Prdna and its Five Varieties
Prana also, like manas, is a word of very varied mean
ing, which only gradually attained its later technical

1 Chand. 7. 3. 1.

PRANA AND ITS VARIETIES 275

significance. Originally prana is the " breath " ; then the
" life " as connected with the process of breathing. In
this character the prana frequently becomes an empirical
and consequently symbolical representation of the atman.
In the older period1 all the vital powers (speech, breath,
eye, ear, manas, etc.), like the life, were called the pranas.
Only gradually manas and the indriyas as the forces of
conscious life were separated from the prana, which with
its five subdivisions is incessantly active in waking
and in sleep, and is consequently the especial vehicle of
life as such. In sleep manas enters into the prana,2 and
causes the soul "to guard its lower nest by the prana. ":
It is from this perhaps that the later conception is derived
that in sleep, while the organs of sense are absorbed into
manas, the fires of prana keep watch in the city of the
body.4 These fires of prana, which are on the watch in
sleep, are themselves five in number, viz. prana, apdna,
vydna, samdna, uddna, and they are mentioned together
both earlier and later numberless times, and employed
in the most varied allegories, without its being possible
to obtain a clear and consistent explanation of them.
Sometimes only two (prana and apdna) are named,5 or
three6 (prana, apdna, vydna), or four7 (prana, apdna,
vydna, uddna), usually however all five.8 This number is
exceeded, as far as we know, only in Sarvopanishats. 10,
where fourteen pranas are mentioned.9

1 Occasionally also later, e.g. Pras'na 3. 4.

2 Chand.^6. 8. 2. 3 Brih. 4. 3. 12. * Pras-na 4. 3.

5 Taitt. Ar. 3. 14. 7 ; Atharvav. 11. 4. 13, Ait. Ar. 2. 1 ; Kath. 5. 3 ;
Mui.id. 2. 1. 7.

6 Brill. 3. 1. 10, 5. 14. 3, Chand. 1. 3. 3, Taitt. 1. 5. 3, 2. 2.

7 Brih. 3. 4. 1.

8 Brih. 1. 5. 3, 3. 9. 26, Chand. 3. 13. 1-5, 5. 19-23, Taitt. 1. 7, Pras'na
3. 5, 4. 4, Maitr. 2. 6, 6. 4, 6. 9, 6. 33, 7. 1-5, Amritab. 34-35, Pranagnih. 1. 4,
Kanthas'ruti 1, Nrisimhott. 9, etc.

9 On their fourteen names, which the scholiast cites, cp. Vedaiitasara
93-104.

2/6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Often as the five prfinas are enumerated in the
Upanishads, it is rarely that anything is found which
serves to explain them. We propose to attempt to
determine the several conceptions involved, so far as is
practical )le.

(1) Prdna and (2) Apdna. In the first place, it is
certain from the witnesses cited on p. 264 that, according
to S'ankara^rana denotes exspiration, apdna inspiration.
The question is how this result is arrived at. Originally,
in all probability prdna and apdna both denoted the same
thing, viz. breath (without distinction of exspiration and
inspiration) in general (whether with the slight difference
that pra-an signifies " to begin to breathe," apa-an " to
cease to breathe," in support of which view Rigv. X. 189. 2
is quoted, may be left undetermined considering the
uncertainty of this passage). There is nothing in the pre
positions to form the basis of a distinction, since pra (71730)
" forwards, onwards " is quite ambiguous, and apa (diro,
from) may just as well mean "from within outwards " as
" from without inwards." Prdna however is by far the
more usual expression, and therefore where it stands alone
frequently denotes the sense of smell, consequently inspi
ration, as in the passage S'atap. Br. X. 5. 2. 15 quoted by
Bohtlingk, or in Brih. 1. 3. 3, Chand. 1. 2. 2, Ait. 1. 3. 4.
So very clearly in Kaush. 2. 5: — ydvad vai purusho
bhdshate, na tdvat prdnitum s'aknoti. Where however
prdna and apdna stand side by side, there (apart from the
conception of apdna as the wind of digestion, as to which
see below), so far as a distinction can be recognised, prdna
is exspiration and apdna inspiration. This is the case
probably as early as Chand. 1. 3. 3, because it is said
previously2 " this is hot," and "as sound is it described."

1 On BrahmasAtra, p. 723. 1-4, and on Chund. 1. 3. 3.

2 In 1. 3. 2, where pruna only can be the subject, since apuna has not yet
been named.

PRANA AND APANA 277

Both definitions apply better to exspiration than to in
spiration. Though in Brih. 1. 3. 3 and Chand. I. 2. 2
prana as the vehicle of scent appears in its more general
meaning of " breath " (inspiration arid exspiration), in the
parallel passage Tal. Up. Br. 2. 1. 16 the apana takes its
place : — " Its misfortune is that it inspires an evil odour
by the apana." ] Here therefore apana is certainly inspi
ration. So in Tal. Up. Br. 1. 60. 5 : — apdnena jighrati,
"a man smells with inspiration," not " one smells with
exhalation (!)." The same argument applies in Tal. Up.
Br. 4. 22. 2-3; the world-producing waters "huss" iti
eva prdc'lh prds'vasan; sa vdva prdno 'bliavat. Tali
prdnya apdnan, sa vd apdno 'bhavat. The sound huss
and the expression prdc'ih prds'vasan point quite un-
mistakeably to prana as exspiration, and consequently
to apana as inspiration. The principal passage is Brih. 3.
2. 2 : — prdno vai grahah; so 'pdnena atigrahena grihito ;
'pdnena hi gandham jighrati. Everyone sees that the
context requires the meaning faculty of smell and smell,
and Bohtlingk need not have reproached me on the
supposition that I failed to see it. He might have
assumed that I had other reasons for my inability to
accept his suggestion of a simple correction here in the
desired sense. My reason was, that there existed here
something in the background which exercised possibly a
stronger attraction on the author or redactor of the passage
than analogy or consistency, viz. — the wish to join prana
and apana together here also as graha and atigraha in
accordance with their usual association. Apana therefore,
inspiration as the vehicle of smell, represented the latter,
and the explanatory addition (apdnena hi gandham

1 pdpam gandham apdniti. These words cannot signify, as Oertel main
tains is possible, " exhaling bad odour," since it is said previously of the prana,
i.e. breath in the mouth according to the parallel passages, na pdpam gandham
apdniti.

278 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

jighrati) was employed in order to justify the connnec-
tion, not as before and usually between yraha and
atigraha, but between atigraha and the object which it
represented. That apana being inspiration, prana by its
side (in its general meaning of " breath ") could not at the
same time denote the sense of smell, as so often elsewhere,
would therefore be overlooked. That the original author
of the paragraph caused this confusion, I find myself
unable to believe ; but the mistake, if we must so call
it, is older than the separation of the Kfmvas and
Madhyandinas, and therefore not much less than three
thousand years old,1 and certainly would not have main
tained its ground all this time if apana had not already
at that period denoted the faculty of smell, and therefore
inspiration. The same conclusion follows from the sym
bolical treatment in Brih. 6. 4. 10-11, where the direction
is ^iven, if unfruitfulness is desired, abhiprdnya apdnydt,
if fruitfulness, apdnya abhiprdnydt. The suppression of
the vital power is symbolised by inspiration, its excita
tion by exspiration. Since however the emphasis lies not
on the gerund but on the finite verb, apdnydt signifies
already in this passage " he inspires," abhiprdnydt, " he
exspires." 2 It is doubtful whether in Kath. 5. 3 urddhvam
prdnam unnayiti, apdnam pratyag asyati, exspiration
and inspiration are to be understood as suggested by 5. 5,
or not rather already as breath and the wind of digestion.
In contrast, that is to say, to the accepted idea of prana
as exspiration, apana as inspiration, a disposition was
formed, and grew stronger as time went on, to see in
prana the breath (exspiration and inspiration), and in
apana the wind of digestion dwelling in the bowels. For
this view the following passages are cited. The prana

1 cp. Deussen, C/pan., p. 377.

* In the translation I allow myself to be betrayed into regarding it vice
versa.

VYlNA AND SAMANA 279

originates from the nose, the apana from the navel of the
primeval man ; 1 Vayu corresponds to the prana, Mrityu
to the apana ; 2 the prana smells the food, the apaiia
overmasters it.3 So possibly in the passage quoted, Kath.
5. 3. In Pras'na 3. 5, the prana has its seat in eye, ear,
mouth and nose, the apana presides over the organs of
evacuation and generation.4 The prana makes its exit
upwards, the apana downwards, and carries off the
excrements.5 The ap£na serves for evacuation.6 The
prana dwells in the heart, the apana in the bowels.7 The
apana is neighbour to the testicles.8 This is the view
adopted also by Vedantasara 94-95, and the commentary
on Chand. 3. 13. 3 and S'ankara's judgement on 1. 3. 3
maintains the same.

(3) Vydna, " interspiration," is "the bond between
prana and apana.9 The conception of it is accommodated
to that of apana. If this is inspiration, then vydna is the
breath which sustains the life, when e.g. in drawing a stiff
bow a man neither inspires nor exspires.10 If, on the con
trary, apana is the wind of digestion, then vyana is the
bond of union between it and the prana,11 rules in the
veins,12 and sweeps like a flame through all the limbs.13
So also in Vedantasara 96.

(4) Samdna, " all-breathing," bears the name because,
according to Pras'na 4. 4, it " leads to union" (samam
nayati) exspiration and inspiration. On the other hand,
according to Pras'na 3. 5 and Maitr. 2. 6, it assimilates
the food, and according to Amritab. 34, 37 dwells white
as milk in the navel. Cp. Vedantasara 98.

1 Ait. 1. 1. 4. 2 Ait. 1. 2. 4. 3 Ait. 1. 3. 4, 10.

4 In Pras'na 4. 2-3, on the contrary, evacuation and generation are
subordinated to the manas, not to the pranas ; apparently therefore it follows
the view first discussed.

5 Maitr. 2. 6. 6 Garbha 1. * Amritabindhu 34.
8 Sannyasa 4. 9 Chand. 1. 3. 3. 10 Chand. 1. 3. 5.

11 Maitr. 2. 6. 12 pras,na 3> 6> 13 Amritab. 35. 37.

280 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(5) Uddna, or "up-breathing," according to the
usual view maintained also in Pras'na 3. 7, conducts the
soul from the body at death, while according to Pras'na 4.
4 already in deep sleep it guides to Brahman ; it is main
tained however in Maitr. 2. 6 that udana " either brings
up again or swallows down that which is eaten and drunk."
Elsewhere it is represented as dwelling in the throat.1
Similarly also in Vedantasara 97, where it is otherwise
explained as the wind of exit.

5. The subtle Body and its ethical Qualification
As further companions of the soul on its wanderings
together with the indriyas, manas, and the pranas, the
later Vedanta reckons " the primitive substance " (bhuta-
ds'raya), i.e. the subtle body, and " the foundation of
works " (karma-ds'raya), i.e. the moral qualification
which conditions the future life. On both we are able to
adduce but little from the Upanishads.

In Chanel. 6. 8. 6 2 it is said of the dying man : — " In
the case of this man, my dear sir, when he dies, his speech
enters into the manas, manas into the prana, prana into
the heat, heat into the supreme godhead." Here, accord
ing to S'ankara,3 as by speech the indriyas as a whole are
to be understood, so by heat (tejas) the elements as a
whole, as they constitute the subtle body in their
character of vehicles of the organs on the departure of
the soul. According to the words of the text however
nothing further is implied here than the thought that the
organs, manas, prana and speech, as they have been derived
according to Chand. 6. 5 by means of food, water, and heat
from the " one being without a second," so in a similar
way at death they are again resolved into it as the
supreme godhead.

We may recognise a trace of the later theory of the

1 Ampitab. 34. 2 cp. 6. 15. 2. 3 Sdtra 4. 2. 8.

THE SUBTLE BODY 281

subtle body more clearly in the great transmigration text
Chand. 5. 3-1 0,1 where a description is given how the
waters, having been five times in succession offered in
sacrifice as faith, soma, rain, food and seed, in the sacrificial
fires of the heavenly world, of rain, the earth, man and
woman, " at the fifth sacrifice became endowed with human
voice." Here by the " waters " which were offered as
faith, etc., may certainly be understood the still undivided
unity of the two companions of the soul, which later were
distinguished from one another as the subtle body and the
ethical qualification.3

The same is true of the leading passage for both
doctrines,4 where it is said of the soul as it departs and
hastens to a new birth : — " In truth, this self is Brahman,
consisting of knowledge, manas, life, eye and ear, consisting
of earth, water, wind and ether, consisting of fire and
not of fire, of desire and not of desire, of anger and not
of anger, of justice and not of justice, consisting of all.
Exactly as a man in this life consists of this or of that,
exactly as he acts, exactly as he moves, so will he be born ;
he who does good will be born good, he who does evil will
be born evil, he becomes holy by holy deeds, evil by
evil." If we leave out of consideration the addition " and
not by fire " which is wanting in the Madhyandina re
cension, and from which a satisfactory meaning can only
with difficulty be extracted, the passage enumerates as
permanent companions of the soul the organs and five
elements, as changing factors the moral qualities. We
see here the theories of the subtle body and the ethical
qualification growing up side by side. The following
verse is appended : —

To this he clings, after this he aspires by his actions,
Whereby his inner man (lingam) and his desire (manas) abide.

1 Brih. 6. 2. 2 Chand. 5. 3. 3, 5. 9. 1.

3 cp. below, Chap. XIV. 5. 4 Brih. 4. 4. 5.

282 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Here we meet, apparently already a technical term, the
word lihgam, by which the adherents of the Sankhya were
accustomed later to denote the subtle body.1 It is perhaps
to be taken in the same meaning further on in Kath. 6. 8
and S'vet. 6. 9 ; where moreover the atman is described
as " lord of the lord of the senses," i.e. lord of the subtle
body. A similar conception may underlie the description
of the atman as " higher than this highest complex of
life." The lihgam makes its appearance precisely as in
the later Sankhya in Maitr. 6. 10, especially if we read3
mahad-ddi-avis'esha-antam lihgam, removing the anu-
svara point, since the subtle body extends from the malidn
to the subtle elements (avis' esha), not to the gross
(vis'esha).* The lingas'artram is described in Sarvopani-
shats. 16 as the vehicle of the organs, the pranas, the
gunas, and the ethical qualification, and accordingly is
identified with the bands of the heart, of which we have
put forward another explanation (sup. p. 270), referring
to Brih. 3. 2. 1-9.

That finally the actions of the soul (the later karma-
ds'raya) • accompany it in the other world, and determine
the formation of the next life, is often emphasized in the
Upanishads, and will demand fuller consideration here
after. The principal passages for this doctrine are Brih. 3.

2. 13, 4. 4. 5-6, Chand. 3. 14. 1, Kath. 5. 7, Is'a 17, etc. ;
above all Brih. 4. 4. 3 : — " Then knowledge and actions
take it by the hand, and its earlier formed experience."
According to later belief also 5 the thoughts which
occupy a man in the hour of death are of especial
significance. This idea is found suggested in Pras'na

3. 10.6

1 sup. p. 242. 2 Pras'na 5. 5.

3 As suggested, Deussen, Upan., p. 337.

4 Sankhya-kiiriku 38-40. 6 Bhag. G. 8. 6.

r> cp. also Chfmd. 3. 14. 1, Brih. 4. 4. 5, and tlie prayer of the dying man
in Is'a 15-1 7 = Brih. 5. 15.

PHYSIOLOGY 283

6. Physiological Conclusions from the Upanishads '

The gross body which the soul abandons at death as
the mango fruit its stalk,1 must be distinguished from the
subtle body, which in its capacity as vehicle of the
psychical organs accompanies the soul on its wanderings
up to the time of its release. We propose here by way
of appendix to collect all that the Upanishads have to say
on the body, its organs arid functions.

The body is the prana's habitation, of which the head
forms the roof, in which it is bound to the breath as posts
by food as the rope.2 It is the atman " consisting of the
juice of food," annarasamaya, in which is enclosed the
prdnamaya atman, in this again the manomaya, in this
the wjndnamaya, and in this as the innermost the dnan-
damaya.3 Only later4 is the dnandamaya atman also
described, like the rest, as a sheath kos'a of the soul.5
Usually following Brih. 2. 5. 18, and especially Chanel. 8.
1.1, the body is described as the city of Brahman (brahma-
puram), heavenly,6 desirable,7 the highest dwelling of
Brahman,8 in which as a house the lotus flower of the heart
abides,9 in which during sleep the fires of the prana keep
watch.10 This city of the body has eleven,11 or more usually
nine gates,12 viz., the nine openings in the body, to which
when eleven are reckoned the navel and the Brahman orifice
(brahmarandhram) are added. The latter is an imaginary
orifice of the skull on the top of the head, through which,
according to Ait. 1. 3. 12, Brahman entered into the body,

1 Brih. 4. 3. 36. 2 Brih. 2. 2. 1.

3 Taitt. 2. 1 f. * by Maitr. 6. 27-28.

5 cp. Sarvopanishats. 9 f., where the annamaya atman is still further
divided into six sheaths consisting of food (according to the commentator
of the Calcutta edition, these are, — bones, marrow, fat, skin, flesh and blood.

6 Mund. 2. 2. 7. 7 Brahma-Up. 1. 8 Mund. 3. 2. 1.
9 Chand. 8. 1. 1, Mahan. 10. 23, Naruy. 5, Atmabodha.

10 Pras'na 4. 3. " Kath. 5. L

12 S'vet. 3. 18, Yogas'. 4, Yogat. 13, Bhag. G. 5. 13.

284 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

and by which the soul, or according to the more usual
view only the souls of the emancipated,1 having ascended
by the hundred and first vein (subsequently named,
following Maitr. 6. 21, sushumna), attains to union with
Brahman.2 Thus the conception is old. The name brahma-
randhram is first found in Hansa Up. 3 in connection
with the six mystical and imaginary regions on the body
that occur there for the first time (the regions of the belly,
loins, navel, heart, neck and eyebrows). It is perhaps
an anticipation of this when, in Ait. 1. 3. 12, eye, manas
and the ether of the heart (as the scholiast reckons them),
are distinguished as special stations of the purusha, or in
Brahma Up. 4, eye, throat, heart and head (in Brahma Up.
2, navel, heart, throat and head). From him who forms
the light within men proceeds also, according to Chand. 3.
13. 8, the warmth of the body and the noises in the ear.
The latter like digestion are ascribed by Byih. 5. 9 to the
Vais'vanara fire in men, which when we bear in mind
S'atap. Br. X. 6. 1 amounts to the same thing. The passages
Mahan. 11. 10, Maitr. 2. G, 6. 27, 6. 31 depend on a
combination of the other two.

Descriptions of the body and its parts, usually with a
pessimistic colouring, are first found at a later period.
" In this evil - smelling unsubstantial body, shuffled
together out of bones, skin, sinews, marrow, flesh, seed,
blood, mucus, tears, eye-gum, dung, urine, gall and
phlegm, how can we enjoy pleasure ? " " This body,
originating from copulation, grown in the pit (of the
mother's womb) and issuing forth through the passages of
the excretions, is a collection of bones daubed over with
flesh, covered with skin, filled full with dung, urine,
phlegm, marrow, fat and grease, and to crown all with
many diseases, like a treasure store crammed with

iChand. 8. 6. 6=Kath. 6. 16.

2 cp. Brahmavidya 12, and especially Taitt. 1. 6. 8 Maitr. 1. 3.

PHYSIOLOGY 285

treasure."1 A definition of the body is given by Atma
Upt i : — « That self, in which are skin, bones, flesh,
marrow, hairs, fingers, thumbs, spine, nails, joints, belly,
navel, pudenda, hips, thighs, cheeks, brows, forehead,
arms, sides, head, veins, eyes and ears, and which is
born and dies, is called the external self."

The most complete elucidation of the body and its
relations is furnished by the late and unfortunately very
corrupt Garbha Upanishad. Its explanations are attached
to a verse, which we quote, inserting the explanations that
follow it : — " Consisting of five (earth, water, fire, wind,
ether), ruling in these groups of five (the so-called five
elements, or the five organs of knowledge, or the organs
of generation and evacuation with buddhi, manas, and
speech), supported on six (the sweet, sour, salt, bitter,
acid and harsh juices of food), endowed with six qualities
(unexplained), made up of seven elementary substances
(the white, red, grey, smoke-coloured, yellow, brown, pale
fluid in the body which is produced from the juice of the
food), made up of three kinds of mucus (unexplained,
probably the three dosha, humours, viz., — vdyu wind,
pittam gall, kapha phlegm), twice-begotten (from the
father's seed and the mother's blood), partaking of various
kinds of food (that which is eaten, drunk, licked and
sucked up) is the body." On the parts of the body and
their importance the Upanishad declares at the close :—
"The head has four skull-bones, and in them there are
(on each) side sixteen socket?. (In the body) there are
107 joints, 180 sutures, 900 sinews, 700 veins, 500
muscles, 360 bones, and 4^ crore (45 million) hairs. The
heart weighs eight pala (364 grammes), the tongue 12
pala (546 grammes), the gall a prastham (728 grammes),
the phlegm an adhakam (2912 grammes), the seed a
kudavam (182 grammes), the fat two prastha (1456

1 Maitr. 3. 4.

286 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

grammes ; the dung and the urine are indeterminate,
depending on the quantity of food."

The head is compared in a verse from Atharvav.
X. 8. 9 to a goblet tilted sideways, the opening of
which is formed by the seven openings of the organs
of sense as seven rishis. The same verse with the
addition of speech as an eighth organ is repeated and
explained in Brih. 2. 2. 3. According to this passage
the eyes are two rishis, although immediately before
the red black and white in the eye with the pupil,
the humour, and the upper and lower lashes, had been
inconsistently described as seven £ods remaining in

•/ o o

attendance on the eye. Of the purusha in the eye as
the symbol of the atman we have already spoken.1
According to Brih. 4. 2. 2-3, Indra and Viraj dwell
in the right and left eye ; they are nourished from the
heart through the veins hitdh? and are, by virtue of their
'* union " in the ether of the heart, the individual atman
identical with the supreme.

As an appropriate punishment for arrogance in
questioning or for the darkness of false knowledge there
frequently occurs in the Upanishads the bursting of the
head.3 The expression may perhaps have its origin in the
sensation of bursting which attends any excessive rush of
blood to the head. This is indicated by Brih. 1. 3. 24
also, where the reference is to a bursting of the head
caused by indulgence in soma. As a rule this punishment
is only threatened.4 Only once is it actually inflicted.5

The heart more than the head occupies the attention
of the thinkers of the Upanishads. It is there that the

1 sup. p. 114 f. 2 cp. Maitr. 6. 2.

3 The phrase is better translated in this way than by the falling off of
the head ; vi-pat might mean either.

4 Ch-ind. 1. 8. 6, 8, 1. 10. 9-11, 1. 11. 4-9, f>. 12. 2, Brih. 3. 6, 3. 7. 1.

5 Brih. 3. 9. 26 ; cp. Atharvav. 19. 28. 4, S'atap. Br. 3. 6. 1. 23, 4. 4. 3. 4,
11.4. 1.9.

PHYSIOLOGY 287

vital breaths reside.1 Not only the five pranas, but also
eye, ear, speech and manas originate from the heart.2
Thejieart and not the head is the home of manas ; 3 and
the former therefore is the centre also of conscious life.
In sleep the organs of the soul remain in the heart,4 and
there also they gather at death ; 5 " through the heart we
recognise forms," 6 through the heart we recognise faith,
beget children, know the truth, on it speech also is based,
while the further question on what the heart is based
is angrily rejected.7 Not the organs however alone, but
all beings are based upon and supported by the heart ;
and even setting aside the actual definition of the heart
as Brahman,8 it is yet the empirical home of the soul, and
therefore of Brahman : — " here within in the heart is a
cavity, wherein he resides, the lord of the universe, the
ruler of the universe, the chief of the universe." 9 The
heart is called hridayam, because "it is he" who dwells
"in the heart" (hridi ay am, Chand. 8. 3. 3), small as a
grain of rice or barley ; 10 an inch in height the puruslia
dwells in the midst of the body, as the self of created
things in the heart.11

On the ground of Chand. 8. 1. 1 the heart is frequently
in the later Upanishads compared with the hanging cup of
a lotus flower,12 or even with banana blossom ; 13 and is
more fully described in Mahanar. 11. 8, Dhyanab. 14-16,
Yogat. 9, Maha 3. In this lotus flower of the heart there
is a small space,14 in which, according to Chand. 8. 1. 3,
heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars are enclosed, in
which " the lights of the universe shine enclosed," 15 which

1 Chand. 3. 12. 4. 2 Chand. 3. 13. 1-5. 8 Ait. 1. 2. 4.

4 Brih. 2. 1. 17. 6 Brih. 4. 4. 1. 6 Brih. 3. 9. 20.

7 Brih. 3. 9. 21-25. « Brih. 4. 1. 7. » Brih. 4. 4. 22.

10 Brih. 5. 6, Chand. 3. 14. 3. " Kath. 2. 20, 4.' 12, 6. 17, etc.

12 Mahanar. 10. 23, Nar. 5, Maitr. 6. 2, Brahmab. 15 ; Atniab, cp. Upan.,
p. 751 ; Hafisa 6.

13 Dhyanab. 14. 14 Or ether, dkas'a. 16 Mund. 3. 2. 1.

288 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

is " the strong support of this universe." 1 Into this space
the soul enters in sleep,2 in it the immortal golden
purusha abides.3 It is the cavity (guhd), so often referred
to, in which Brahman lies concealed,4 and from which he
issues in the meditation of yoga, when he pushes on
one side the ether of the heart,5 or forces his way
through it.0

Several accounts are found of the veins that originate
from the heart and surround it, and these are related in a
peculiar and hardly definable way.

Brili. 4. 2. 3 : — The veins called hitdh, fine as a hair
a thousand times subdivided, have their home in the
heart, and nourish the individual soul. A special vein
leading upwards is the path on which it travels.

Brih. 4. 3. 20 : — The veins called hitdh, fine as a hair
a thousand times subdivided, are filled with white, grey,
brown, green and red fluid. They are the abode of the
soul in deep sleep.

Brih. 2. 1. 19 : — The veins called hitdh, 72,000 in
number, ramify from the heart outwards into the
pericardium (puritat). They are the abode of the soul
in deep sleep.

These passages are in essential agreement ; and Kaush.
4. 19 appears to be derived from a combination of
them : — " The veins called hitdh, fine as a hair sub
divided a thousand times, surround the pericardium
They are the abode of the soul in deep sleep. They
are filled with brown, white, black, yellow and red
fluid." All this is like the passages from Brih., only
that the succession and names of the colours 7 agree
with Chand. 8. 6. 1.

Chfrnd. 8. 6. 1 connects the idea of the brown, white,

1 Brahma Up. 4. - Brih. 2. 1. 17. 3 Taitt. 1. G. 1.

4 Taitt. 2. 1, Kath. 2. 12, 2. 20, 3. 1, S'vet. 3. 20, Mund. 2. 1. 10, etc.

6 Maitr. 6. 27. f> Maitr. 6. 38. 7 Up to krishna for nlla.

PHYSIOLOGY 289

gray, yellow and red "veins of the heart" with the
theory 1 of the rays of the sun similarly five coloured,
which form the continuation of the veins unto the sun,
thus uniting heart and sun, like two villages by a hioii
road. In deep sleep the soul glides into these veins,2
and through them becomes one with the heat.3 At
death the soul ascends to the sun by way of the veins
and the sun's rays. The wise gain the sun, the ignorant
find the entrance to it closed.

The verses Brih. 4. 4. 8-9 may perhaps be derived
from this passage. They describe an ancient path, extend
ing even to the individual man, which leads up to the
heavenly world, and is white, gray, yellow and green.
On this the soul of the wise man travels, after it has
become heat, taijasa. The expression taijasa recalls the
passages quoted from the Chandogya ; 4 the colours are
as in the Brihadaranyaka. In the main point all the
passages hitherto cited agree.

A different view however seems to attach to the verse
(perhaps derived from Brih. 4. 4. 2), which is appended to
Chand. 8. 6. 6 and recurs in Kath. 6. 16 : —

The veins of the heart are a hundred and one.
Of these one leads to the head ;
By it he ascends who wins immortality.
The others issue forth on all sides.

According to this verse only one vein leads upwards
to immortality, while according to the preceding prose
all the veins are connected with the sun's rays, and
therefore lead to the sun, where first a separation takes
place.

Later passages all depend on a combination of the
theories of the 72,000 and the 101 veins. Thus on the

1 Of which CMnd. 3. 1-5 is an anticipation.

2 Chand. 8. 6. 3. 3 tejas, Chand. 6. 2. 3, 6. 8. 6, 6. 15. 2.
4 cp. also however Brih. 4. 4. 7.

IQ

290 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANTSHADS

basis of them Pras'na 3. 6 enumerates 101 chief veins,
each with 100 branch veins, to each of which again there
are 72,000 tributary branch veins, making a total of
101 + 101 x 100 + 101 x 100 x 72,000 = 727,210,201, i.e.
72 crores, 72 lacs, and 10,201 as the commentary1
correctly reckons. According to Maitr. 6. 30, countless
white, not white, blackish yellow, gray, reddish brown,
and light-red rays proceed from the heart, of which
one leads to the sun, 100 to the abodes of the gods, and
the rest downwards to the ordinary world. Kshurikfi
15-17 mentions the 72,000 veins, of which 101 are the
most important. Through all these veins, which are
grouped around the 101st, named susliumnd, as round a
cushion, the yogin forces his way, when conducted on the
sushumnd to Brahman. Similarly Brahmavidya 11-12
describes how the syllable Om (i.e. that on which he
meditates) ascends on the vein of the head which is
attached to the sun, and breaks through the 72,000 veins
and the head, in order to unite with Brahman. These
and other fancies depend upon a combination of the
passages quoted from Brih. Up. with the verse cited from
Chand. 8. 6. 6.2

The body consists on the usual hypothesis, which is
traceable back to Brih. 4. 4. 5, of the five elements.3 In
Chand. 6. 5 also, where only three elements (food i.e.
earth, water, and heat) are assumed, it is shown how
the body and the psychical organs originate from the
most dense, the medium, and the finest parts of them
according to the following scheme : —

Densest. Medium. Finest.

Food . . fteces flesh manas

Water . . . urine blood prana

Heat . . . bones marrow speech

1 According to the reading of the Anandas'rama edition.
* = Kuth. G. 16.

PHYSIOLOGY 29I

In this case, just as with the milk when churned to
butter, the fine parts float to the top.1 In proof of the
statement that manas is composed of food, prana of
water, it is declared that if a man abstains from food
but drinks water the life (Cyrano) is maintained, but
thought (manas) fails.2 In Brih. 4. 2. 3 also it is declared
that the individual soul is nourished by the mass of blood
in the heart, and that it therefore, as the bodily self, " has
a choice food" (pravivikta-dhdra-tara). From this is
derived the doctrine that the waking atman " enjoys that
which is gross " (sthdlabhuj), the sleeping on the contrary
" erWs that which is choice " (pravivikta-bhuj)*

Hunger and thirst, which according to Ait. 1. 2. 5
make their home in men as demoniac powers, are
explained in Chand. 6. 8 on etymological grounds on the
supposition that in hunger (as'andyd) the waters carry
off (as'itam nayante) the food that is eaten (to build up
the organism), while in thirst (udanyd] the heat carries
away (udakam nayate) the water that is drunk (likewise
to build up the organism). When then in hunger and
thirst the food becomes water, the water heat, they only
return to the source from which according to Chand. 6. 2
they were derived.

The states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep and death
will have to be discussed in the immediately following
chapters. Here we propose merely to summarise the
most important teaching of the Upanishads on the origin
of organisms (which collectively are the wandering
souls).

Organisms are divided according to their origin into
four classes, viz. — born alive, born from an egg, born
from moisture (insects and the like), and born from a
germ (plants). This classification, which was universally

1 Chand. 6. 6. 2 CMnd- 6 7>

3 Mandftkya 3-4, interpreted differently in Vedaiitasara 120.

292 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

adopted with a few modifications by later Indian writers,1
depends solely upon two passages of the Upanishads.
The first is Chfiud. 6. 3. 1 : — " In truth, these beings
have here three kinds of seeds, born from the egg, born
alive, and born from the germ." In Ait. 3. 3 where a
fourth class is added, and the enumeration is " born from an
egg, born from the mother's womb, born from moisture, and
born from a shoot," the impression is conveyed of a later
origin and of apparent dependence on the former passage.
In harmony with the doctrine of transmigration,
generation is not the birth of the soul for the first time,
but is only its return from the moon, where it has
received the fruit of the works of its earlier existence.
According to the principal text of the doctrine of
transmigration,2 the stations through which the soul
passes on its return from the moon are ether, wind,
smoke, mist, clouds, rain, plants, seed and the mother's
body. Hence is derived the description of Mund. 2. 1. 5 ;
and the verses also of Kaush. 1. 2, in which the soul on
its return from the moon directs its course through the
bodies of father and mother, are connected with these
ideas. Perhaps the obscure passage Pranagnihotra Up. 2
is to be explained in a similar way. According to it the
expiatory fire " by means of the brilliancy of the moon "
effects generation.8 The last receptacle of the soul on its
descent from the other world to enter into a new body is
the father's seed ; this is the essence of men,4 " the power
gathered together from all the limbs,"'' it is the pro-

1 Manu 1. 43-48, Mahfibh. 14. 113G, 2543, etc. ; cp. for the Vedanta, Syst.
d. Veil., p. 259 ; for the Sankhya, Garbe, Sdhkhyaphilosophie, p. 243; for the
Nyaya, Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, I. p. 269 f.

2 Chand. 5. 10. 5-6 = Brih. 6. 2. 16.

3 Naniyana's explanation is different in the gloss quoted in Upan., p. 615,
Anrn. 2.

4 Brih. 6. 4. 1.

5 Ait. 2. 1 ; on the expression gambhritam tejas, cp. MeghadAta 43.

PHYSIOLOGY 293

pagation itself;1 its home is in the heart;2 Prajapati
created the woman as its dwelling-place ; 3 into her the
man pours forth his own self, and causes it thereby to be
born : — " then enters he into the very essence of the
woman, as though he were a limb of hers ; therefore it is
that he does her no harm ; she however, after that this
his atman has come to her, cherishes it; because she
cherishes it, therefore is she to be cherished." 4 According
to this it is the soul of the father, which is born again in
the child, while, according to the principal text of the
doctrine of transmigration5 quoted above, the child is a
soul on its return from the moon, and consequently in
its view both the father's seed and the mother's womb
are only stations on the road. The myth ascribed to
Yajnavalkhya in Brih. 1. 4. 3-4 is not in agreement with
either of these views, when it explains procreation as
the desire for re-union of the two halves of one and the
same being, originally belonging together, but divided by
Prajapati into man and woman. This myth, like that
analogous to it in the Symposium of Plato, departs from
the truth only to the extent that it places in the past
what lies in the future. For the being that brings
together man and woman is indeed the child that will
be born (cp. Deussen, Elements of Metaphysic, 153).

To beget is represented as a religious duty. In Taitt.
1. 9 it is enjoined side by side with studying and teaching
the Veda. Frequently it is allegorically described as an
act of sacrifice.6 In Taitt. 1. 11 the pupil dismissed from
study is charged, — " After having delivered to the teacher
the gifts of affection, take care that the thread of thy
race be not broken." "He who in his lifetime rightly
continues to spin the thread of posterity thereby transfers

1 Brih. 6. 1. 6. 2 Brih. 3. 9. 22. 3 Brih. 6. 4. 2.

4 Ait. 2. 2-3. s Chand. 5. 10. 5-6.

6 Chand. 3. 17. 5, 5. 8-9, Brih. 6. 2. 13, 6. 4. 3.

294 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

his guilt to the fathers ; for it (begetting) is the trans
ference of his guilt."1 By the son his continued life is
assured in the world of men,2 he is admitted to the fathers
to consummate his righteous deeds;3 "and if anything
whatever has been committed perversely by him, his son
will expiate all ; therefore is his name ' son ' ; 4 by the son
that is to say he continues to exist in this world.'"
Particular directions are given in Brill. 0. 4 how to
proceed in order to beget a son or a daughter of a definite
disposition. This chapter forms the conclusion of the
Upanishad, and therefore probably the close of the
religious instruction imparted to the student at the end
of his student life.

In contrast with these views, which include the act of
procreation within the sphere of religious duties, an
ascetic tendency gradually prevailed which rejected it
altogether. In Brih. 1. 4. 17 the five natural objects of
human endeavour (self, wife, child, kingdom, action) are
replaced by five phenomenal forms of the atman (manas,
speech, breath, eye and ear, body). In Brih. 3. 5. 1 it is
said of Brahmans who have known the atman that they
hold aloof from the desire for children, possessions, and the
world. Similarly in Brih. 4. 4. 22, where it has been said
previously : — "This our ancestors knew, when they ceased
to desire offspring, and said, — 'What need have we of
offspring, we whose soul this universe is." If these
assertions are put into the mouth of Yajnavalkhya, who
nevertheless himself had two wives, this is only an
additional proof that Yajnavalkhya is a mere name, to
which the loftiest and noblest thoughts of the school of
the Vajasaneyins were assigned. Whether in the wish
also of Chand. 8. 14 :- "May I not, the glorious of the

i Mahfm. 63. 8. 2 Brih. 1. 5. 16. 8 Ait. 2. 4.

4 putra, because he pAranena trdyati pitaram, S'ank.
* Brih. 1. 5. 17.

PHYSIOLOGY 295

glorious, enter upon old age toothless," the expression
''toothless, grey, slobbery" is to be understood of a fresh
entrance into the mother's womb (as the scholiast takes
it), or of a possibly long period of trial before old age and
its troubles are reached may be left undecided. Of later
passages only Mahan. 62. 7, 11, 63. 8, 13 need be cited,
where self-renunciation is exalted above parentage, and
Pras'na 1. 13, 15, where the prajdpativratam is still per
mitted on the condition that it is not practised by day,
but the world of Brahman is promised only to those
"who mortify themselves, in whom true chastity is
firmly established." That the later Sannyasa Upanishads
are full of this spirit needs no proof. Sacrifice to
Prajapati, which is enjoined in them on the Sannyasin
at his entrance,1 but is elsewhere forbidden,2 appears
to denote a symbolical release from the duty of pro
pagation.

The length of the stay in the mother's body is
estimated in Chand. 5. 9. 1 at " ten (lunar) months, or
as long as it is." Detailed information on the develop
ment of the embryo is given in Garbha Up. 2-4 :— ' The
embryo is developed from the union of seed and blood,

. from this union at the periodical time after one
night a nodule arises, after seven nights a cyst, within
half a month a lump, within one month it hardens, after
two months the head is formed, after three months the
parts of the feet, in the fourth month the ankle-bones,
belly and hips, in the fifth the spine, in the sixth, mouth,
nose, eyes and ears, in the seventh the embryo is
furnished with the soul (jtva), in the eighth it is complete
in all its parts. If the male seed is in excess a male
is born, if the female a female, if both are equal a
hermaphrodite; blind, lame, bent and dwarfed are the
results of lack of power. If the seed on its entrance is

1 Kanthas'r. 4. 2 Jabala 4.

296 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPAMSHADS

divided by the pressure of the wind on either side into
two parts, the body also becomes twofold, and twins are
born. . . . Finally in the ninth month it is complete in all
its parts, and also in knowledge ; then it recalls (as long
as it remains still in the mother's body, like Yamadeva,
Ait. 2. 4) its former births, and has knowledge of its good
and evil deeds ; . . . when however, arriving at the gates
of the sexual parts, it suffers pain by the pressure, is with
difficulty and in great anguish born, and comes into
contact with the Vaislmava wind (the wind of the
external universe), it is unable any longer to bethink it
of its births and deaths, and has no further knowledge of
its good and evil deeds." Voltaire's mockery (Ep. XIII.
sur les Anglais) has reference to similar ideas in the later
Western philosophy, but it applies also to the Indian a
priori imaginations : — je ne suis pas plus dispose que
Locke a imaginer que, quelques semaines apres ma
conception, j'^tais une Time fort savante, sachant alors
mille choses que j'ai oubliees en naissaut et ay ant fort
inutilement possede dans ] 'uterus des connaissances qui
m'ont echappe (Kis que j'ai pu en avoir besoin et que je
n'ai jamais bien pu reprendre depuis.

XIII. THE STATES OF THE SOUL

1. The Four States

As the atman, " becoming incarnate in bodily form," l
in space occupies the body as the aggregate of the organs
" right up to the finger-tips," 2 so also in time it passes
in this its individual condition through a series of states,
in which its real metaphysical nature becomes gradually
more and more plainly visible. These states are: — (1)
waking, (2) dream sleep, (3) deep sleep (sushujrti), i.e.

1 sartratvdya dehin, Kiith. 5. 7. 2 Brih. 1. 4. 7.

STATES OF THE SOUL 297

deep, dreamless sleep, in which the soul becomes tem
porarily one with Brahman and enjoys a corresponding
unsurpassable bliss, and (4) the " fourth" state (c'aturtha,
turya, turiya), usually called turiya, in which that dis
appearance of the manifold universe and the union with
Brahman on which the bliss of deep sleep depends takes
place not as before unconsciously, but with continued and
perfect consciousness.

The theory of these four states took shape at first by
degrees.

To begin with, it may well have been the loss of con
sciousness in sleep, arid its return on waking which
aroused attention and suggested such questions as in Brih.

2. 1. 16 i1 — "When he fell asleep here, where was that
spirit consisting of knowledge (vijndnamayah puruslia\
and whence has it now returned (on waking) ? " This
marvellous phenomenon of sleep was then explained as a
transient immersion of the organs (speech, eye, ear and
manas) in the prana. This is the case in S'atap. Br. X. 3.

3. 6, and in the passage Chand. 4. 3. 3 which agrees with
it almost verbally : — " For when a man sleeps, his speech
enters into the prana, the eye into the pi-ana, the ear into
the prana, the manas into the prana." Chand. 6. 8. 2 is a
mere amplification of this explanation of sleep (perhaps
with a recollection of Brih. 4. 3. 19) : — " Just as a bird tied
to a string flies to this side and to that, and having found
no resting-place elsewhere settles down on the spot to
which it is tied, so also, my dear sir, the manas flies to
this side and to that, and having found no resting-place
elsewhere, settles down into the prana, for the prana, my
dear sir, is the spot to which the manas is tied." The
immediately preceding words of Chand. 6. 8. 1 are derived
from a somewhat different conception : — " When it is said
that the man is asleep, then has he, my dear sir, attained

1 cp. Kaush. 4. 19.

298 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

to union with the self-existent (previously described in
Chand. 0. 2 f.). He has entered into himself, therefore it
is said of him "he sleeps" (svapiti), for he has entered
into himself (aram apUa)."

None of these passages make any distinction between
the sleep of dreams and deep sleep. Such a distinction
is first found in Brih. 4. 3. 9-18, 19-33, then in Brih.
2. 1. 18-19,1 and finally Chand. 8. G. 3, 8. 10, 11-12.2
This may well be the historical order. In Brih. 4. 3. 9-33
the distinction is not so fully carried out as in Brih. 2. 1.
18-19, where the name sushupta for the "deep sleeper,"
which is still wanting in Brih. 4. 3. 9-33, first makes its
appearance, and from this are further developed the terms
sushuptam* and sushupti* for "deep sleep." The ampli
fications of Chand. 8 seem to be the latest of all, and
dependent already on Brih. 4. 3. 9-33 ; for when in
Chanel. 8. 3. 4 5 deep sleep is described (not as in Chand.
6. 8. 3 in connection with Chand. 6. 2. 3, 0. 8. 6 as a union
with the tejas, but) as an entrance into the purest light,
and an emergence therefrom as a necessary consequence
in its own true form (^laram jyotir upasampadya svena
rupcna abhinishpadhyate), this peculiar conception may of
course be referred back to Chand. 3. 13. 7, but it seems
more natural to find in it a reminiscence of the " spirit
consisting of knowledge, giving light within in the heart "
of Brih. 4. 3. 7, which, as is there further expounded, "by
virtue of its own brightness, its own light, serves as a
light for itself" in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.
It is surely also a proof of dependence that the word
samprasdda, which in Brih. 4. 3. 15, a passage that had
probably already suffered interpolation, still has the
meaning of the "perfect rest" of deep sleep, is used in

1 cp. Kaush. 4. 20. 2 cp. Chanel. 8. 3. 4.

1 From and after Maud. 5. 4 From and after Kaivalya 13. 17.

» =8. 12. 3.

STATES OF THE SOUL 299

Chand. 8. 3. 4, 8. 12. 3 directly of "the soul in deep
sleep."

The brief notice of Ait. 1. 3. 12 is drawn from these
older passages, and the more detailed discussions on
dream sleep and deep sleep of Pras'na 4 are similarly
dependent.

By the side of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, there is
found a fourth and higher condition of the fitman, viz. — the
c'aturtham, turyam, turiyam (sc. sthdnam), or the turiya
(sc. dtmd). It occurs first in Mfmd. 7, as compared with
which the passages Maitr. 6. 19, 7. 11, which belong to
the appendix, are probably later. Here also the three first
states are denoted by the mystical names Vais'vdnara,
Taijasa, Prdjna. The waking soul is in this instance
called vais'vdnara perhaps because all men in their waking-
hours have a world in common,1 but in dreams each has
his own ; the dreaming soul taijasa, probably because
then the atman alone is its own light ; 2 the deep-sleeping
soul prdjna, because in deep sleep the atman, according to
Brih. 4. 3. 21, is temporarily one with the prdjna atman,
i.e. Brahman.

The discussion of the four states severally may be
introduced by the definition of them given in Sarvo-
panishatsara 5-8 :—

" When using the fourteen organs of which manas is
the first (manas, buddhi, c'ittam, ahankara, and the faculties
of knowledge and action), that are developed outwards, arid
besides are sustained by deities such as aditya, etc., a man
regards as real the external objects of sense, as sounds,
etc., this is named the waking (jdgaranam) of the
atman."

" When freed from waking impressions, and using only
four organs (manas, buddhi, c'ittam, ahankara), apart from

1 As Heracleitus says, on Plut. de Superset. 3.

2 svena bhdsd, svena jyotishd prasvapiti, Brih. 4. 3. 9.

300 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

the actual presence of the sounds, etc., a man regards
as real sounds dependent on those impressions, this is
named the dreaming (svapnam, here neuter) of the
at man."

' When as a result of the quiescence of all fourteen
organs and the cessation of the consciousness of
particular objects, a man (is without consciousness),
this is named the deep sleep (sushuptam) of the
atman."

" Wlicn the three states named have ceased, and the
spiritual subsists alone by itself, contrasted like a spec
tator with all existing things as a substance undirFe-
rentiated, set free from all existing things, this spiritual
state is called the turlyam (the fourth)."

2. The Waking State

" The Vais'vdnara, that exists in a waking condition,
recognising external objects, with seven limbs and nineteen
mouths, enjoying that which is material, is his first
quarter."1 The atman in the first of the four states, that
of waking, is said to be " seven-limbed" because, according
to Chand. 5. 18. 2, whence the name vais'vdnara is
derived, it consists of sky, sun, wind, ether, water, earth
and (sacrificial) fire, and recognises this its cosmical being
by means of its " nineteen-mouthed " (ten indriyas, five
pranas, manas, buddhi, ahankara, c'ittam) psychical being.
Thus it enjoys the world of " material " objects. Kaivalya
12 may be quoted in explanation : —

When his soul is blinded by muya,
It inhabits the body and accomplishes actions;
By women, food, drink, and many enjoyments,
It obtains satisfaction in a waking condition.

As these passages already indicate, it is his own being
alone which in the waking state the vais'vdnara evolves

1 Mund. 3.

THE WAKING STATE 301

out of himself and enjoys as the world of material objects.
On this the relation of waking and dreaming depends,
which is already indicated when in Ait. 1. 3. 12 there are
ascribed to the atman "three dream-states" (tray all
svapndh), by which, according to the commentators,
waking, dreaming and deep sleep are to be understood.
Even waking is a dream-state, because in it, as S'ankara
remarks on this passage, " a waking of one's own real self
does not occur, and a false reality is contemplated, just as
in a dream." x This connection of waking with the dream-
state is discussed in great detail by Gaudapada in the
Mandukya-karika. Waking, like dreaming, is a delusion,
since it reflects for us a manifold universe ; 2 the percep-jj
tions of waking, just like those of a dream, have theirl
origin solely within us,3 and have no other existence than!
in the mind of him who is awake.4 And as the reality of1
the dream is dissipated on awakening, so, on the other
hand, the waking reality is dissipated by the oblivion of
the dream.5 The same thought may perhaps be traced as
early as Brih. 4. 3. 7, where the knowledge and initiative
of the atman are first explained as merely apparent, and
then the reason for this is assigned, that the atman in the
dream transcends the unreal phenomena of waking :— " it
is as though he meditated, it is as though he moved about ;
for 6 in sleep he transcends this world and the forms of
death." Just as a fish swims between two banks without
touching them, so the atman between the states of waking
and dreaming ;7 from waking he hastens to dreaming, and
from this again " back to the waking state ; but by nothing
which he sees therein is he affected ; for nothing cleaves
to this spirit."8

1 On other expressions of S'ankara in this sense, cp. Syst. d. Ved., pp.
297, 299, 372.

2 2. 5 3. 29. 3 4. 37.

6 2 7 4. 32. 6 sa MI f°r which the Madhy. read sadMh.

7 Brih. 4. 3. 18. 8 Brih. 4. 3. 16.

302 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

3. Dream-sleep

The principal passage on which apparently all others
depend is Brih. 4. 3. 9-14 :—

'k When now he falls asleep, he takes from this all-
comprehending universe the timber, cuts it down, and
himself builds up of it his own light, by virtue of his
own brilliance ; when therefore he sleeps this spirit serves
as light for itself. There are there no carts, no teams,
no roads, but carts, teams and roads he fashions for
himself; there is no bliss, joy or desire, but bliss, joy
and desire he fashions for himself; there are no wells,
pools and streams, but wells, pools and streams he fashions
for himself; for he is the creator. To this the following
verses refer :—

Throwing off in sleep what pertains to the body,
Sleepless he contemplates the sleeping organs ;
Borrowing their light he returns then back to his place,
The golden spirit, the sole bird of passage.

This lower nest he would have guarded by the life,
And himself rises aloft immortal from the nest ;
Immortal he moves whither he will,
The golden spirit, the sole bird of passage.

In the dream-state he moves up and down,

And fashions for himself as god many forms,

At one time gaily sporting as it were with woman,

At another again glowering as it were with terrible mien.

Only his playground is seen here,
He himself is not seen anywhere.

Therefore it is said, --he should not be wakened
suddenly, for it is difficult to find a cure for one to
whom he fails to find his way back. Therefore it is
said also, — it (sleep) is for him only a waking state,
for what he sees waking, the very same also he sees in
sleep. Thus therefore this spirit serves for a light
for itself."

DREAM-SLEEP 303

In this passage two methods of conceiving the dream
are poetically united. According to the one, the spirit
remains in its place, and fashions from itself " by virtue
of its own brilliance its own light," a new world of forms,
using the materials of its waking hours. According to
the other, the spirit in dreaming forsakes the body, and
"moves whither it will," and consequently at times
finds difficulty in returning to the body.

These two conceptions which are derived only from
poetical imagination and do not essentially differ are
taken up seriously in Brih. 2. 1. 18, and are reconciled
with one another by limiting the wanderings of the
dreamer to his own body: — "Where then he wanders
in dreaming, these arc his worlds ; for he is as it were
a great king or a great Brahman ; or he ascends as
it were or descends.1 And just as a great king takes his
subordinates with him, and journeys throughout his land
at will,2 so he takes with him those vital spirits, and
journeys about at will in his body." This extraordinary
theory which has no natural foundation of a journeying
about in the body during dreams, finds its explanation
as an attempt to reconcile the different conceptions of
the fundamental passage above quoted. The comparison
also with the great king and great Brahman seems to
be based on the succeeding words of Brih. 4. 3. 20, which
describes as follows the transition from the dreaming
consciousness of being this or that to the deep sleep
consciousness of being another : — " When now (in a
dream) it is as though he were slain, as though he were
flayed, as though he were trampled upon by an elephant
(vic'c'lidyayati), or plunged into a pit, — everything of
which he was afraid in his waking hours, that very

1 uc'c'dvac'am nigac'c'hati, according to Brih. 4. 3. 13 uc'c'dvac'am
tyamdnah.

2 Recalling Brih. 4. 3. 37-38.

304 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

thing in his ignorance he regards as real ; or, on the other
hand, when it is as though he were a god or a king,
on becoming conscious I alone am this universe, — this
is his highest state." That is to say, as the paragraph
goes on to state, it is the condition of deep sleep, in
which a man knows himself to be one with the universe,
and is therefore without objects to contemplate, and
consequently without individual consciousness.1 And
when in Chand. 8. 10. 2 it is said of the dreamer: — "It
is still however as though he were slain, as though
he were trampled upon (vic'c'hdyayanti), as though he
experienced hardship, as though he lamented," the con
nection with the passage quoted from Brih. 4. 3. 20 is
obvious. The meaningless vic'c'hddayanti of Chfmd.
8. 10. 2 was changed by M. Muller2 into vic'c'lidyayanti.
An almost inevitable consequence of this change, bearing
in mind the great rarity of this expression, is that Chand.
8. 10. 2 is immediately dependent on Brih. 4. 3. 20.
The converse supposition, or even the idea of an inter
polation of Brih. 4. 3. 20 from Chand. 8. 10. 2,3 is
scarcely probable in view of the general character of the
two passages.

Pras'na 4. 5 is more certainly dependent on Brih.
4. 3. There, after it has been shown how in sleep manas
absorbs into itself the ten indriyas, so that only the
prana fires keep watch in the city of the body, the
dream is described as follows: — "Then that god (viz.
manas) enjoys greatness, inasmuch as he sees yet again
that which was seen here and there, hears yet again
things heard here and there, perceives again and again
in detail that which was perceived in detail in its sur
roundings of place and circumstance ; the seen and the
unseen, the heard and the unheard, the perceived and

1 Brih. 4. 3. 21 f. * Followed by Bohtlingk and myself.

8 The possibility of which was still in my mind in Upan., pp. 464, 470.

DREAM-SLEEP

305

the unperceived, the whole he views, as the whole he
views it (sarvam pas'yati, sarvah pas'yati}" The last
words especially, when compared with Brih. 4. 3. 20
(aham eva idam sarvo 'smi, iti many ate], place the
derivative character of this passage quite beyond doubt.

Of later passages we cite only Mand. 4, where after
the exposition of the waking state discussed above it
is similarly said of dreaming : — " The Taijasa, existing
in the dream-state, possessed of inner knowledge, with
seven limbs and nineteen mouths, enjoying that which
is excellent, is his second quarter." The expressions
"seven-limbed," " nineteen-mouthed " are explained as
above on waking. The dream-soul is said to be " enjoying
that which is excellent" (praviviktablmj) undoubtedly
with reference to Brih. 4. 2. 3, where it is said of the
individual soul that it in contrast to the body " has an
excellent provision" (pravivikta-dkdratara.)

A discussion of the illusion of dreams with a view to
elucidate the illusion of waking is furnished by Gaudapada
2. If., 4. 33 £, where the same thoughts already appear,
which later on S'ankara, a pupil of his pupil, has further
expanded.1

4. Deep Sleep

Dream-sleep passes over into deep sleep, when by
virtue of a nearer approach to the other world 2 the
dreaming consciousness of being this or that, a god or
king, etc., passes over, as is described in Brih. 4. 3. 20,
into the consciousness of being the universe ; and this,
since there are no longer any contrasted objects, is no
consciousness in an empirical sense, but a transient union
with the prdjna dtman, the eternal knowing subject,
i.e. with Brahman. These thoughts are expanded in
the most important text that treats of deep sleep, and

1 cp. Syst. d. Ved., p. 371. 2 Bj.ih 4> 3 9

20

306 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

which is probably also the oldest, Brih. 4. 3. 19-33 :—
" Just as there however in space a hawk or an eagle, after
it has circled round, folds its wings wearied, and drops
to the ground, so also the spirit hastens to that state
in which fallen asleep it no longer experiences any
desires nor sees any dream image." Then after a
reference to the veins hitdk, in which according to Brih.
2. 1. 19, etc., the soul rests in deep sleep, and after the
description of the transition from dreaming to deep sleep
it is said : — " That is its real form, in which it is exalted
above desire, free from evil and is fearless. For just as
a man, embraced by a beloved wife, has no consciousness
of outer or inner, so also the spirit embraced by the
self consisting of knowledge (prdjnena dtmand, i.e. by
Brahman) has no consciousness of outer or inner. That
is his real form, in which desire has been laid to rest,
he is himself his own desire, is without desire and free
from pain. Then the father is no longer father, the
mother no longer mother, the worlds no longer worlds,
the gods no longer gods," etc., all contrasts are lost in
the eternal One, " then is he unaffected by good and
unaffected by evil, then has he overcome all the pangs
of his heart. If he then sees not, yet is he seeing, though
he sees not ; since for the seeing One there is no inter
ruption of seeing, because he is imperishable ; there is
moreover no second besides him, no other distinct from
him for him to see." It is in this prolongation of
existence as pure objectless knowing subject that the
bliss of this state consists ; an existence such as is seen
in deep sleep, as is expounded later on in a continuation
of the passage already discussed.1 Brih. 2. 1. 19 might
perhaps be regarded as a brief summary of the thought
of this section : — " When however he is in deep sleep,
when he is conscious of nothing, then the veins called

1 p. 142 f.

DEEP SLEEP 307

kitdh, seventy-two thousand of which branch out from
the heart into the pericardium, come into action ; into
these he glides, and rests in the pericardium ; and just
as a youth or a great king or a great Brahman is at rest
enjoying an excess of bliss,1 so he also is then at rest."

Union with the prdna (which is identified with the
prdjndtman) is the essential element of deep sleep in
Kaush. 3. 3 also : — " When a man has fallen so sound
asleep that he sees no dream-image, then he has attained
union with this prana ; then speed i enters therein with
all names, the eye with all forms, the ear with all sounds,
the manas with all thoughts." Kaush. 4. 19-20 is a
combination of the two last-quoted passages.

The passages of the Chand. Up. also which deal with
deep sleep give throughout the impression of being of a
derivative character. We quote them, referring as far as
possible within parentheses to passages that have been
employed as models.

" When a man has fallen so sound asleep, and has so
completely and perfectly been lulled to rest, that he
knows no dream-image, then he has glided into these
veins (Brih. 2. 1. 19, 'into these he glides'); therefore
no evil troubles him (Brih. 4. 3. 22, ' then is he
untouched by good and untouched by evil'), for he has
then become one with the heat" (Chand. 6. 2. 3, G. 8. 6).2
" When a man has fallen so sound asleep, and has so
completely and perfectly been lulled to rest that he knows
no dream-image, that is the Self, so he spake, that is the
immortal, the fearless, that is Brahman." 3 The rejoinder
is given : — " He has entered then into nothingness ;
herein I can discern nothing consolatory," 4 and this is

1 atighnim dnandasya ; this expression combines the ideas of Brih. 4. 3. 33,
sup. p. 142.

2 Chand. 8. 6. 3. 3 Chand. 8. 11. 1.

4 cp. the rejoinder of Maitreyi, Brih. 2. 4. 13, — "Therefore, sir, you have
led me astray, in that you say that after death there is no consciousness."

308 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

met by a reference to wind and cloud, lightning and
thunder, which emerge from the latent condition, and
thereby reveal their true nature : — " so also this perfect
tranquillity (samprasdda, in Brih. 4. 3. 15 ' deep sleep,'
here and Chfind. 8. 3. 4 ' the soul in deep sleep/ cp. Brih.
4. 3. 7 sa hi svapno bhutrd) emerges from this body
(Brih. 4. 3. 11 : — 'casting away in sleep what pertains to
the body'), enters into the purest light, and issues forth
through it in its own form (Brih. 4. 3. 9 : — ' when he thus
sleeps, then this spirit serves for its own light'); that is
the supreme spirit, who wanders about there (Brih. 4. 3.
12: — 'Immortal he roves whither he pleases '), while he
sports and plays and amuses himself, whether it be with
women (Brih. 4. 3. 13: — 'at one time as it were gaily
sporting with women '), or with chariots (Brih. 4. 3. 10), or
with friends, and gives no thought to this appendage of a
body, to which the prfina is yoked, like a team to the
waggon (Brih. 4. 3. 35 :— ' Just as a cart, when it is
heavily laden, goes creaking')." It seems to be due to a
misunderstanding of the verse Brih. 4. 3. 11—14 that here,
as already in Brih. 4. 3. 15, that which belongs solely to
dream-sleep is ascribed to deep sleep. In Pras'na 4. 6
also, as in Chfind. 8. 6. 3, deep sleep is conceived as a
union with the heat (tejas) : — " When however that god
is overcome by the heat, then he sees no dreams, and then
that joy rules in this body."

Finally the description of deep sleep in Mfmd. 5 is
entirely composed of reminiscences of other passages :—
' The state in which he, fallen asleep, no longer ex
periences any desires, nor sees any dream-image (Brih. 4.

3. 19), is deep sleep. The prajiia that exists in the state
of deep sleep, that has become one (Brih. 4. 4. 2), that
consists entirely through and through of knowledge (Brih.

4. 5. 13), consisting of bliss (Ttiitt. 2. 5), enjoying bliss,
having consciousness as its mouth (Brih. 4. 3. 21, 35), is

THE TURlYA 309

his third quarter. He is the lord of all (Brih. 4. 4. 22),
he is the all-knowing (Mimd. 1. 1. 9). he is the inner
guide (Brih. 3. 7), he is the cradle of the universe (Mimd.
1. 1. 6), for he is the creation and dissolution (Kath. G.
11) of living beings."

5. The Turlya

Waiving, dream-sleep and deep sleep are the only three
states of the atman which are found in the older
Upanishads. According to their view, perfect union with
Brahman, and therefore the highest attainable state, is
reached in deep sleep. "This is his highest aim, this
is his highest good fortune, this is his highest world,
this is his highest bliss."1 These words, which are
used of deep sleep, exclude the thought of a yet higher
state.

It was first later on, with the rise of the Yoga system,
that in the yoga a state of the soul gained recognition,
which was exalted above deep sleep, inasmuch as that
union with Brahman and the supreme bliss associated
therewith, which manifests itself in deep sleep apart from
continued individual consciousness retaining its memory
even after waking, is realised in the yoga together with
complete maintenance of the waking individual conscious
ness. This distinction between the yoga and deep sleep
is very clearly described by Gaudapada : 2 —

As eternal changeless knowledge,

Not distinct from that which is known,

Brahman is ever known,-—

By the eternal is the eternal known.

This process consists in this,
The irresistible suppression
Of all movements of the spirit, —
It is otherwise in deep sleep.

1 Brih. 4. 3. 32. 2 Maiidtikya-K. 3. 33 t.

3io THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

The spirit gives light in deep sleep,
But when suppressed it gives no light,
It becomes Brahman, the fearless,
The sole and entire light of knowledge.

This suppression of consciousness of objects and union
with the eternal knowing subject which is brought about
by the yoga and is coincident with absolute wakeful ness,
is designated as the " fourth " state of the atman by the
side of waking dreaming and deep sleep ; as c'aturtha,1 or,
adopting the ancient Vedic and therefore more formal
word for c'aturtha, as turiya ; 2 and in the latter case both
"the turiya " (sc. dtmd, masc.) and also " the turiyam" (sc.
sthdnam, neut.) were employed. Since this state forms
in fact a part of the yoga system, we shall learn more
of it in detail in our discussion of the latter in a later
connection, and here we propose merely to cite the
passages in which the doctrine of the turiya makes its
first appearance. This conception is undoubtedly antici
pated by the ancient doctrine of the four feet of Brahman
in his character of Gayatri ; 3 but the oldest passages in
which the turiya is announced as a fourth distinct state of
the atman are Hand. 7 and Maitr. 6. 19, 7. 11. Of these
the passages from the Maitr. Up. (appendix) would seem
to be the later, since they assume the turiya state as
already known, which is not the case in Mand. 7. In the
latter also the technical term turiya is still missing, and
in its place c'aturtha is once employed. This passage, of
which later writers make much use, runs as follows : —

" Knowing neither within nor without nor yet on the
two sides, nor again consisting throughout of knowledge,
neither known nor unknown, — invisible, intangible, in
comprehensible, indescribable, unthinkable, inexpressible,
founded solely on the certainty of its own self, effacing the

1 Mand. 7. 2 Also

3 Chand. 3. 12, 3. 18, 4. 6-8, Brih. 5. 14, where the very expression turiya
is already found.

THE TURlYA 311

| entire expanse of the universe, tranquil, blissful, timeless,
—that is the fourth (c'aturtUa) quarter, that is the atman,
that we must know."

The best exposition is given by the pertinent strophes
of Gaudapada : l-

Neither of truth nor untruth,

Neither of itself nor another

Is Prdjna (deep sleep) ever conscious,

The fourth (turya) views everything eternally

In the refusal to recognise plurality
The Prdjna and the fourth are equal ;
Yet Prdjna lies in slumber like a germ,
The fourth knows no slumber.

Dreams and sleep belong to the two first,
A dreamless sleep is the possession of the Prdjna,
Neither dreams nor sleep does he who knows it
Ascribe to the fourth.

The dreamer's knowledge is false,
The sleeper knows nothing at all,
Both go astray, where all this vanishes
There the fourth state is reached.

In the world's illusion that has no beginning
The soul sleeps ; when it awakes
Then there awakes in it the eternal,
Timeless and free from dreams and sleep.

Assuming this doctrine of the turiya in its description
of the yoga, the passage Maitr. 6. 19 urges the "keeping
under of the individual soul called prdna in that which
is called turyam" \ and in 7. 11 assigns the four states
of the atman to the four feet of purusha (one of which is
composed of all living beings, while three are immortal in
heaven),2 in such a way that waking, dreaming and deep
sleep form the one foot, the turiya the three others :—

He who is in the eye, he who is in the dream,
He who is in deep sleep, and he who is supreme, —
These are his four varieties,
Yet the greatest is the fourth.

1 1. 12-16. 2 Kigv. X. 90. 3.

312 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

A quarter of Brahman is in three,
Three-quarters are in the last ;
In order to taste truth and delusion
The great self became twofold.

From later passages on the turlya1 we propose to
mention only the amplifications of Nrisimhottaratap. Up. 2.
and 8, where the conception is further refined, and four
degrees of turiyaalso are distinguished, viz. — ota,anujndtri,
anujnd and avikalpa (pervading the universe, enlightenino-
the mind, spirituality, indifference), of which the three
first are still constantly affected by "deep sleep, dreaming
and sheer illusion," and only awkalpa, the entire oblite
ration of all distinction, purified from every taint of the
world is, as turiy a- turlya, "the fourth of the fourth"
pure, absolute thought.

1 cp. Brahma Up. 2, Sarvopanishats. 8, Hariisa Up. 8.

FOURTH PART OF THE SYSTEM OF THE
UPANISHADS

ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRA
TION AND EMANCIPATION, INCLUDING THE WAY
THITHER (PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY)

XIV. TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL

1. Philosophical Significance of the Doctrine of
Transmigration

WHAT becomes of men after death ? This question leads
us to that doctrine which, if not the most significant in
the Indian conception of the universe, is yet certainly the
most original and influential, the doctrine of the trans-
the soul, whi^liJpourT^ down

position in Indian
influence. *
i3wEere express*

Mankind, as S'ankara somewhere expressesTfvr~5 like a
plant. Like this it springs up, develops, and returns
finally to the earth. Not entirely, however. But as the
seed of the plant survives, so also at death the works of a
man remain as a seed which, sown afresh in the realm of

* In Jaipur I met in December 1892 an old Pandit almost naked, who
approached me groping his way. They told me that he was completely
blind. Not knowing that he had been blind from birth, I sympathised with
him, and asked by what unfortunate accident the loss of sight had come upon
him. Immediately and without showing any sign whatever of bitterness,
the answer was ready to his lips : — keiiac'id aparddhena pdrvasmin janmani
kriteiia, " by some crime committed in a former birth."

1 On Bralnnasutra 2. 1. 34, and frequently.

313

314 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

ignorance, gives rise to a new existence in exact correspon
dence with his character. Each life with all its actions
and sufferings is on the one hand the inevitable conse
quence of the actions of a former birth, and conditions
on the other hand by the actions committed in it the
next succeeding life. This conviction begets not only a
real consolation in the sufferings of existence, which are
universally seen to be self-inflicted, but is also a powerful
incentive to habitual right conduct, and the instances
from Indian epic and dramatic poetry are numerous in
which a sufferer propounds the question, What crime
must I have committed in a former birth ? and adds
immediately the reflection, I will sin no more to bring
upon myself grievous suffering in a future existence.

This conception, mythical as it is, nevertheless contains
a germ of philosophical truth, which it is yet difficult to
draw out in detail. For, properly speaking, the entire
question "What becomes of us after death?" is in
admissible, and if anyone could give us the full and
correct answer we should be quite unable to understand
it. For it would presuppose an intuition of things apart
from space, time and causality, to which, as forms of
perception, our knowledge is for ever limited. If we
determine, however, to do violence to truth, and to con
ceive in terms of space that which is without space, the
timeless in terms of time, the causeless from the point
of view of causality, then we may to the question,
" What becomes of us after death ? " (which is as it
stands incorrectly put, because it assumes the forms of
time) give three answers, inasmuch as we have only the
choice between (l) annihilation, (2) eternal retribution
in heaven and hell, and (3) transmigration. The first
supposition is in conflict not only with a man's self-love,
but with the innate certainty more deeply rooted than all
knowledge of our metaphysical being as subject to no

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 3 1 5

birth or dissolution. The second supposition, which
opens up the prospect of eternal reward or punishment
for an existence so brief and liable to error, so exposed to
all the accidents of upbringing and environment, is con
demned at once by the unparalleled disproportion in
which cause and effect here stand to one another. And
for the empirical solution of the problem (itself strictly
speaking inadmissible) only the third supposition remains,
that our existence is continued after death in other forms,
other conditions of space and time, that it is therefore in
a certain sense a transmigration. The well-known argu
ment of Kant also, which bases immortality on the realisa
tion of the moral law implanted in us, a result only
attainable by an infinite process of approximation, tells
not for immortality in the usual sense, but for trans
migration.

Although therefore the doctrine of the soul's migration
is not absolute philosophical truth, it is nevertheless a
myth which represents a truth for ever inconceivable for
us, and is accordingly a valuable substitute for the latter.
Could we abstract from it the mental framework of space,
time and causality, we should have the complete truth.
We should then discern that the unceasing return of the
soul is realised not in the future and in other regions, but
here already, and in the present, but that this " here " is
everywhere, and this "present" is eternal.

These views agree essentially with those of the later
Vedanta, which clings to belief in transmigration. This
belief, however, is valid only for the exoteric apard
vidyd ; for the esoteric para vidyd, the reality of the
soul's migration falls to the ground with the reality of the
universe.

We propose now to endeavour to trace the origin of
this remarkable doctrine in the light of the Vedic texts.
We must first, however, guard against a misunderstanding.

316 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

When it is said occasionally of the fathers that they
"move along, adopting the external form of birds"; or
when the soul of the Buddhist mother at death enters
into a female jackal in order to warn her son on his
journey of the unhealthy forest ; when the dead pass into
an insect that buzzes round the last resting-place of the
bones ; or when the fathers creep into the roots of plants j1
these are popular representations, which are on a level
with the entrance of the Vetd/a into the corpse, or the
yogin's animating of several bodies, but have nothing to
do with belief in transmigration. They have as little
to do with any such doctrine as the ancient Egyptian
idea that the dead can return and assume any form at
pleasure (which Herodotus in ii. 123 seems to interpret
erroneously of the soul's migration), or the seven women
in Goethe's poem, who appear by night as seven were
wolves. Superstitious ideas like these have existed
amongst all peoples and at all times, but do not imply
belief in transmigration, nor have they given rise to
such teaching, least of all in India, Indeed, they have
exercised scarcely any influence upon it ; since, as we
shall show, the theory of transmigration rests on the con
viction of due recompense awrarded to good and evil
works, and this was at first conceived as future. Only
later, for reasons which the texts disclose to us, was it
transferred from an imaginary future into the present
life. If therefore this recompense involves at times exist
ence as an animal or plant, this is merely an incidental
consequence on which no stress is laid from first to last ;
though it is true that this circumstance appeared to the
opponents of the doctrine from the very beginning to be
its especial characteristic, and has called forth their derision
since the times of Xenophanes.2

1 Oldenbcrg, Religion des Veda, pp. 5G3, 581 f.
* Diog. L. 8. 36.

VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY 317

2. Ancient Vedic Esclmtoloyy

In no Vcclic text earlier than the Upanishads can the
doctrine of the soul's transmigration be certainly traced,
although the Upanishads themselves ascribe it even to
the Rigveda. The artificial manner however in which
this is done is in favour of the view that we have to do
with a doctrine of recent origin, for which a confirmation
was sought in the ancient sacred texts. Three passages
have to be considered.

In Brih. 1. 4. 10 it is said of Vdmadeva, the poet of
Rigveda IV., that he (by virtue of a s'dstra-drishti, an
inspired conception, as Badarayana says,1 quoting this
instance) recognised himself as Brahman ; and as a proof
of his knowledge of Brahman alleged his acquaintance
with his former births as Manu and Surya : — " Knowing
this, Vamadeva the rishi began : 2-

I was once Manu, I was once the sun."

More clearly in Ait. 2. 4 the authority of Vamadeva
is invoked in order to prove that a third birth after death
follows on the first birth (as a child), and the second
birth (by spiritual education) : — "After he has completed
what he has to do, and has become old, he departs hence ;
departing hence, he is once more born ; this is his third
birth. Therefore says the rishi : 3—

While yet tarrying in my mother's womb,

I have learnt all the births of these gods ;

Had a hundred iron fortresses held me back,

Yet like a hawk of swift flight I had escaped away.

So Vamadeva spake though he still lay thus in his
mother's womb." The quotation from the hymn of
Vamadeva admits of interpretation here only if we under-

* I. 1. 80. 2 Kigv. IV. 20. 1. 3 Rigv. IV. 27. 1.

318 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

stand by the hawk the soul, and by the iron fortresses
the bodies through which it wanders.1

That neither quotation of Vamaveda has anything to
do with the doctrine of the soul's transmigration, needs no
elaborate proof. In the first Indra glorifies his magical
power, which enables him to assume all manner of forms.2
In the second is depicted the cunning hawk of Indra
already in his mother's womb, as he leaves his fortified
dwelling-place, in order to fetch the soma from heaven ;
or perhaps the wise soma itself relates how it, borne away
by the hawk from its iron strongholds, " as a hawk" (i.e.
carried by it) comes down to earth.

At first sight the doctrine in question appears to be
more closely related to a third quotation. In the great
transmigration text it is said in a reference to the way of
the gods : 3 — " And thou hast indeed failed to comprehend
the word of the seer, who speaks thus : —

Two ways, I heard, there are for men,

The way of the fathers and the way of the gods ;

On the latter everything meets

That moves between father and mother."

This translation is correct in the sense of the Upani-
shad, but not in the sense of the original, which is found
in Rigv. X. 83. 15 (overlooked by all former translators)
in a hymn celebrating Agni in his twofold character as
sun by day and fire by night. In view of this connection,
it can hardly be doubtful that by the two ways that
unite all that moves between earth and heaven day and
night are to be understood, and thus the passage is to be
rendered : — " I have heard from my forefathers that there
are two ways alike for gods and men." They are all
subject to the laws of day and night.

1 cp. Brili. 2. r>. 18.

8 cp. Rigv. VI. 47. 18, Indro mdydbhih pururdpa' lyate.

3 Brih. 6. 2. 2.

VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY

319

The hymns of the Rigveda therefore know nothing yet
of a migration of the soul, but teach for the good a con
tinued existence with the gods under the control of Yama,
for the evil a journey only dimly indicated into the abyss.
The standpoint of the Atharva hymns and of the
Brfihmanas is the same ; only that the conception of a
recompense for works is carried out in detail. This re
compense however lies always solely in the future, and in
the Upanishads for the first time is transferred into the
present. A brief glance at the ancient Vedic eschatology
will confirm this.

Immortal life with the gods is represented in many
hymns of the Rigveda, especially the older, as a
peculiar gift of the grace of the gods, to confer which
Agni,1 the Maruts,2 Mitra-Varuna,3 Soma,4 and other
gods are entreated, and which is offered in particular
to the generous worshipper.5 Lajbrn^nn it

anj^s to that glorious height, andwho^Jjiej'e _sits_entEroiied

as jbhe atherer toether of men.6 In

him

guard the entrance to the ijiejivejaly^

admit everyone^ Hjge^isjrobably to Jb& foundjhe_first

trace ofa udement of thdeaxl^

Elsewhere 8

to these dogs is assigned the office of wandering up and
down amongst men, and dragging off those appointed to
die. According to X. 165. 4 the dove (kapota) is Yama's
messenger of death. Mention is made also 9 of the fetters
or the catch-net (padbis'am) of Yama, so that for the

1 L 31. 7. 2 V. 55. 4. s y. 63 2.

5 yah prindti sa ha deveshu gacx'hati, etc., I. 125. 5-6.
0 saiigamano janandm, X. 14. 1 f .
7 X. 14. 10. 8 X. 14. 12. 9 X. 97. 16.

4 I. 91. 1.

320 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

singers of the Rigveda he already represents also the
terrors of death. Usually however in these older times
jTama is conceiveci as the ruler in the kingdom of the
^c^sseo^j^LlL£L^tsTnthroned afaxJJn thelmflgtrrrF heaven ,2
in the_ bosom of the ruddy morning,3 in_tKe~~Mghest
ieaven,4 in eternal light.5 There he sits, drinHn|pwith
the gods, under a tree with fair foliage,6 there the dead
gather around him, in order to see Yama, or Varuna ; 7
they leave imperfection behind them, and return to
their true home,8 to the pasturage of which no one will
again rol) them,9 where the weak is no longer subject to
the strong,10 where in immortal life in association with
Yama they " delight themselves Tit the banquet" with the
gods.11 Stress has frequently been laid on the sensuous
character which is thus borne by the ancient Vedic pictures
of the future life. But on this point it may be remarked
that a conception of the joy of heaven on the analogy
of that of earth is natural to man and inevitable (so far
as he shrinks from an absolute denial of its existence) ;
that even Jesus represents the kingdom of heaven as a
festal gathering, where they sit down to table,12 and drink
wine ; 13 and that even a Dante or a Milton could not
choose but borrow all the colours for their pictures from
this world of earth. In other respects great differences
are shown in the ancient Vedic descriptions of the other
world, varying indeed according to the individual
character of the poet, — from the fancy of the poet of
Atharvav 4. 34, that runs riot in a vulgar sensuality
(who indeed already sufficiently reveals his disposition by

I I. 36. 18. 2 X. 15. 14. » X. 15. 7.

4 VsYj. Saihh. 18. 51, Atharvav. 18. 2. 48.

5 IX. 113. 7. «X. 135. 1. rx. 14. 7.

8 hitvaya avadyam punar astam chi, X. 10. 8.

9 X. 14. 2. 10 Atharvav. 3. 29. 3.

II sadhamddam madanti, Rigv. X. 14. 10, Atharvav. 18. 4. 10, etc.
12 Matt. 8". « Matt. 2629.

VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY 321

the manner in which he praises his rice-pap and the
gift of it to the Brahmans ; the whole might almost be
regarded as a parody), to the more spiritual perception
of the beautiful verses, Rigv. IX. 113. 7-11, of which we
give a rendering with the omission of the refrain :

7. The kingdom of inexhaustible light,
Whence is derived the radiance of the sun,
To this kingdom transport me,

Eternal, undying.

8. There, where Yama sits enthroned as king,
Among the holiest of the heavenly world,
Where ever living water streams,

There suffer me to. dwell immortal.

9. Where we may wander undisturbed at will,
Where the third loftiest heaven spreads its vault,
Where are realms filled with light,

There suffer me to dwell immortal.

10. Where is longing and the consummation of longing,
Where the other side of the sun is seen,

Where is refreshment and satiety,
There suffer me to dwell immortal.

11. Where bliss resides and felicity,
Where joy beyond joy dwells,
Where the craving of desire is stilled,
There suffer me to dwell immortal.

There also " the fathers " dwell in company with the
gods, and like them are invoked to draw near and partake
of the sacrifice. To the fathers as well as to the gods are
ascribed the wonders of creation,1 the adornment of the
sky with stars,2 the bringing forth of the sun,3 etc. They
therefore stand generally on an equality with the gods,
and though occasionally there is found as early as the
Rigveda 4 an indication of a different abode of the fathers,
no distinction of different degrees of blessedness, such as a

1 Rigv. VIII. 48. 13. 2 x. 68. 11.

3X, 107. 1. 4X. 15. 1-2.

21

322 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

later text assumes for the fathers, the unbegotten gods and
the gods of creation,1 is as yet recognised.

Of tliejate of thejgicjsedobscure indications only are
Lthe Rigveda. 1lLC)^u:

abyssmal placjl' 2 areliui'ledjyy Jhidra and Soma into tBe

_

the outer darkness.6 Perhaps also the expression should be
quoted"" theTJUmT darkness " (andham tamas) frequently
employed by the Upanishads,7 into which already, according
to Rigv. X. 89. 15, 103. 12, the demons are to be plunged.

u regions

__

death aiijniagiiiarj^liell, but this world in which jwe jive.
~ °f tne Riveda meet us

j^irthei:.^cLevelopejl in the hymns of the ^Atharvaveda
and in the Brahmanas. More exact accounts~are given
of the fate of the good and the wicked. Verses such as
Atharvav. 5. 19. 3, 13 remind us already of the later
descriptions of hell :—

Those who spit at Brahmans,
Or cast on them the mucus of the nose,
They sit there in pools of blood,
Chewing their hair for food.

The tears that rolled down from his eyes,

Bewailing himself, tormented,

Which the gods quaff as their drink,

Such are appointed for thee, torturer of Brdhmans.

In greater detail the Brahmanas describe " the world
of the pious" (sukritdm loka).s These rise again in

1 Brih. 4. 3. 33, Taitt. 2. 8.

2 idain padam ajanata galhiram, Rigv. IV. 5. 5.

3 vavra, VII. 104. 3. 4 andraiiibhanam tamas, ib.
• karta, IX. 73. 8. 6 X. 152. 4.

7 Brih. 4. 4. 10 f., ts'fi 3. 9. 12 ; cp. Ruth. 1. 3.

8 The expression occurs only once in the Rigveda, X. 16. 4, but afterwards,
characteristically, becomes more and more common, Vuj. Saiiih. 18. 52,
Atharvav. 3. 28. G, 0. 5. 1, 11. 1. 17, 18. 3. 71, etc.

VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY 323

the other world, their body complete with all its limbs
and joints (sarvatanu, sarvdhga, sarvaparus).1 This
new body is stronger, and in the other world in pro
portion to the faithfulness with which they have observed
the rites of sacrifice, many of the pious need to take food
once only in fourteen days, in four, six or twelve months,
or a hundred years, or finally they are able altogether to
dispense with it.2 Thus they live in perpetual intercourse,
in fellowship with the worlds and with living beings
(sdyujyam, salokatd, sardpatd), with the gods, with
Aditya,3 with Agni, Varuna and Indra,4 or even with the
impersonal Brahman.5 In S'atap. Br. 10. 5. 4. 15 indeed
it is said already of the wise : — " He himself is free
from desires, has gained all that he desires, no longer
does desire (entice) him to anything. Concerning this
is the verse : —

By knowledge they climb upwards,
Thither, where desire is quenched,
No sacrificial gift reaches thither,
Nor penance of the ignorant.

For that world cannot be won by sacrificial gifts nor by
asceticism by the man who does not know this ; for only
to him who knows this does that state belong." Here
already in place of works and asceticism knowledge makes
its appearance, and in harmony with this emancipation
instead of the glory of heaven. Transmigration therefore
is not presupposed,6 for there is no mention of trans
migration earlier than the Upanishads. Probably how
ever the germs of it are latent already in the Brahmanas,
as we propose now to show.

1 Atharvav. 11. 3. 32, S'atap. Br. 4. 6. 1. 1, 11. 1. 8. 6, 12. 8. 3. 31.

2 S'atap. Br. 10. 1. 5. 4. a Ait. Br. 3. 44, Taitt. Br. 3. 10. 9. 11.
4 S'atap. Br. 2. 6. 4. 8. 5 S'atap. Br. 11. 4. 4. 2.

6 As Weber assumes, Zeitschr. d. D. M. G., ix. 139.

324 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

3. The Germs of the Doctrine of Transmigration
The chief aim of the Bmhmanas is to prescribe the

and

While they defer rewards
as well as punishments partly to the other world, in place
of the ancient Vedic conception of an indiscriminate
felicity of the pious, the idea of recompense is formulated,
involving the necessity of setting before the departed
different degrees of compensation in the other world pro
portionate to their knowledge and actions. Since how
ever the oldest form of punishment among all peoples in
a natural state is revenge, this recompense also consists
originally in the doing to us in the other world of the
very same good and evil which we have done to anyone
in this. This theory is realistically expressed in the
words of S'atap. Br. 12. 9. 1. 1: — "For whatever food
a man eats in this world, by the very same is he eaten
again (praty-atti] in the other." A second proof is
furnished by the narrative in S'atap. Br. 11. 6. 1 of the
vision of the punishment in the other world which was per
mitted to Blirigu ; and we may entirely assent to the view
of Weber,1 who was the first to discuss this question, when
he explains the liturgical interpretation of this vision as a
subsequent addition of the Brahman author. Kemoving
this there is left as the kernel, that Bhrigu in the different
regions sees men shrieking aloud, by whom other men
shrieking are hewn in pieces limb by limb, chopped up
and consumed with the words : — " Thus have they done
to us in yonder world, and so we do to them again in
this world." When the vision concludes with the black
man with yellow eyes and the judge's staff in his hand,
at whose side stand beautiful and ugly women (good and

1 Zeitsch. d. J). M. G., ix. 237 f.

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 325

evil works), assuredly no doubt is left as to its original

meaning.

From the primitive doctrine of retribution, as this
extract preserved accidentally in a later Brahmana text
exhibits it, the idea of an equalising justice may have
been developed by degrees, as it appears in S'atap.
Br. 11. 2. 7. 33 :— 'Jj^ojuttie^Ua^^
on the scales in yonder wojM^_and^whichever

ojrthejjyiL" Not all, according to a somewhat different
view, find the way to the heavenly world : 1 — " Many a
ma^rnay^Jailjbo find his^pla^e_wjhen_ he^departs^Jience,
but bewildered by the fire (at the corpse burning). ;md
clouded by__the sjmoke, ho__fails_ tq_fmd_ out his place."
Qthers__are_ kept at a distance from the world of the
fathers forja longer or shojteTjnm^^ f2^

" Whosoever threatens (a Brahman) he shall atone for it
with a hundred (years) ; he who lays violent hands on
him with a thousand ; but he who sheds his blood shal!
not find the world of the fathers for as many years as
the grains of dust number that are moistened by its
streams. Therefore men should not threaten a Brahman,
or lay hands on him, or shed his blood, for there is
involved in it so great an offence." Here the " world of
the fathers" seems still, as in the Kigveda, to present
itself before the mind as the highest goal. In course of
time however a distinction arose between the way of the
gods and the way of the fathers,3 and similarly between
the world of the gods as the abode of the blessed and
the world of the fathers as the place of retribution.
Precisely again as in the later doctrine of transmigration
it is said that the entrance to the heavenly world lies in
the north-east,4 and the entrance to the world of the

1 Taitt. Br. 3. 10. 11. 1. 3 Taitt. Samli. 2. 6. 10. 2.

3 Atharvav. 15. 12, etc. 4 S'atap. Br. 6. 6. 2. 4.

326 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

fathers in the south-west,1 a distinction which is of all
the more importance because it is found in two different
passages, and is therefore not to be ascribed to an
incidental process of systematising. Every man is born
in the world fashioned by himself.2 We hear of an
" immortality " which lasts only a hundred years ; 3 and
that he who sacrifices to the gods " does not gain so great
a world as he who sacrifices to the atman." 4 In another
text it is said that " day and night (time) consume in
yonder world the worth (of good works) for him who does
not know this " ; 5 and Naciketas solicits as his second
wish the imperishableness (akshiti) of good works.6
With especial frequency do we meet with the fear that, in
stead of the hoped for immortality (amritatvam, the " not-
dy ing-any-more-ness") a renewed death (punarmrityu,
death over again) may await man in the other world,
and to avoid this all kinds of means are provided. " He
who builds up or knows the Naciketas fire, he escapes
renewed death." 7 "He who celebrates the day of the
equinox, he overcomes hunger and renewed death." " He
therefore who knows this escape from death in the
agnihotram is delivered from renewed death";9 "The
yajamdna, who builds up the fire, becomes the divinity
of the fire, and vanquishes thereby renewed death."
" He who knows how hunger flees before food, thirst
before drink, misfortune before happiness, darkness before
light, death before immortality, before him all these flee,
and he escapes renewed death." n A like escape is his
who builds up the fire in the appointed way,12 offers an
appointed sacrifice,13 in the appointed way studies the

1 S'atap. Br. 13. 8. 1. 5. 2 S'atap. Br. 6. 2. 2. 27.

3 S'atap. Br. 10. 1. 5. 4. 4 S'atap. Br. 11. 2. 6. 14.

5 Taitt. Br. 3. 10. 11. 2. 6 Taitt. Br. 3. 11. 8. 5.

7 Taitt. Br. 3. 11. 8. 6. 8 Kaush. Br. 25. 1.

9 S'atap. Br. 2. 3. 3. 9. 10 S'atap. Br. 10. 1. 4. 14.

11 S'atap. Br. 10. 2. 6. 19. 12 10. 5. 1. 4. 13 11. 4. 3. 20.

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 327

Veda.1 Thus " escape from renewed death " becomes
finally a stereotyped formula,2 which is occasionally
employed even where it seems to give no meaning.3 We
meet it even in the texts of the older Upanishads : — He
escapes recurrent death who knows that death is his own
self,4 that sacrifices to the atman avail,5 that there is a
water to quench the fire of death,6 that the wind is the
sum and substance of all.7 That this renewed death is
to be understood of a repeated dying in the other world
is taught especially by two passages : — " Accordingly he
brings his fathers, who are mortal, to a condition of
immortality, and causes them who are mortal to rise
again from out of the condition of immortality ; in
truth, he who knows this averts renewed death from his
fathers." 8 " They then who know this or do this work
rise again after death, and when they rise again they rise
to immortality ; but they who do not know this or fail to
do this work rise again after death, and become again and
again its prey." 9 From the parallel which this passage
draws between immortality and recurrent death it is clear
that the latter also is not to be understood as trans
migration, but only of a resurrection and repeated death
in the other world. It was only necessary however to
transfer that renewed death from an imaginary future
world into the present in order to arrive at the doc-i
trine of transmigration. This takes place first in the
Upanishads, and the reasons that led to this last step
will not evade us. Here it is only necessary to remark
further that not all the Upanishad texts know or recognise
a transmigration of souls, and when it is said in Brih.
1. 5. 16, — "The world of men is to be gained only
through a son, not at all by works ; by works the world

1 S'atap. Br. 11. 5. 6. 9. 2 10. 6. 1. 4 f. 3 12. 9. 3. 11.

4 Brih. 1. 2. 7. 5 Brih. 1. 5. 2. 6 Brih. 3. 2. 10.

' Brih. 3. 3. 2. 8 S'atap. Br. 12. 9. 3. 12. 9 S'atap. Br. 10. 4. 3. 10.

328 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

of the fathers is gained, by knowledge the world of the
gods," this text also knows nothing as yet of a trans
migration, unless it is to be considered as a protest
against the new up-start dogma. Similarly passages like
Brih. 1. 4. 15 (good works come at last to nought) and
3. 8. 10 (sacrifice and asceticism win only finite reward)
are still to be understood of an exhaustion of the value of
works in the other world.

4. Origin of the Doctrine of Transmigration
The chief text that sets forth the doctrine of
transmigration, on which almost all subsequent texts are
dependent, is found in a twofold recension for the most
part in verbal agreement with one another. These
passages are Chand. 5. 3-10 and Brih. 6. 2.1 The Indian
authorities call it the doctrine of the five fires (panc'dg-
nividyd}. It is a combination of two different parts,2 the
doctrine of the five fires (in a narrower sense) 3 and the
doctrine of the two ways.4 While reserving these two
names for the two parts, we propose here and in the
sequel to term the combination of the two briefly the
chief text.

It is remarkable in the first place that a text of such
supreme importance for all that follows is found in Brih.
6. 2 only in an appendix (kkilaMndam), and not in the
t^p,chiefjli visionsof this

When these two were

collected, and later on combined with one another, it
must surely have been still unknown ; for why otherwise
should it have been passed over, when later on it gained
the admission which its importance demanded ? This of

1 cp. S'atap. Br. 14. 9. 1.

2 cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 137 f., where this has been already shown.

3 Chand. 5. 4. 1-5. 9. 2 = Brih. 6. 2. 9-6. 2. 14.

4 Chand. 5. 10 = Brih. 6. 2. 15-16.

* Brih. 1-2. c Bj-ih. 3-4.

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 329

itself proves that the text is of late origin and a secondary
product ; still more so do its contents.

This so-called chiefjgxt tcaghgsji_jj^^
oncejpy reward and punishment in the_other_world. and
jiornjn hy rebirjji upon^ajth. This feature is evidently
primitive, ancLLSjiothing more than a (XiQil^jna^on'^Qt^tlie
^

noydrecompenseof the transmigration doctrine. We
must therefore look for the original cloctrine where it
appears by itself alone and apart from combination with
the ancient Vedic recompense in the other world. This
leads us again to the Yaqnavalkhy a ^sections,1 in which we
have already so often fSuncftlie' earliest form of Upanishad
doctrine. In them we can still observe the origin of the
doctrine of the soul's transmigration, together with the
motives prompting it. According to a conception which
is likewise already ancient Vedic, existing by the side of
that usually current and hardly reconcilable i^yith
eye ofaman at death^jroes tcLJJb^sun^Ji
wind, his'speecli_to_the fire, his^Jimbs tojKo^different
parts of^th(3 universe^ With these thoughts am
expressed in Rigv. X. 16. 3, and further expanded in
S'atap. Br. 10. 3. 3. 8, is connected the passage which we
here quote in full, since it gives expression for the first
time, as far as our knowledge goes, to the thought of the
soul's transmigration, which it regards as a great mystery ;
and at the same time it enables us to recognise the motive
which led to this transference of the retribution from the
future world to the present.

" ' Yajfiavalkhya,' so he (the son of Ritabhaga) spake,
' when after a man's death his speech enters into the fire,
his breath into the wind, his eye into the sun, his manas
into the moon, his ear into the pole, his body into the
earth, his atman into the akas'a (space), the hair of his

1 Brih . 3-4.

330 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

body into herbs, the hair of his head into trees, his blood
and seed into water, — where then does the man remain ? '
Yajnavalkhya answered: — 'Take my hand, Artabhaga,
my good friend ; on this matter we must come to an
understanding alone by ourselves, not here in the
company.' Then they two went asid^andconferred
with one another 7 and wEalPEIiey saicTtliat was" work,
aTTH^vTiat th^v^oi^encTeg^hatwas jvoff ' ]jLj£utn, a"
man becomes good "by^gbod works,_evir6g^vil works.^"

In the last words the motive which lies at the basis
of the doctrine of transmigration is clearly expressed. It
is the great moral difference of character, existing from
birth, upon which the singers of the Kigveda had already
pondered,2 and which the philosopher explains in our
passage on the hypothesis that a man has already existed
once before his birth, and that his inborn character is the
fruit and consequence of his previous action.

Yajnavalkhya expresses himself more clearly still in
another^vvell^iio\vn passage.3 Here immediately after the
rlp|^arturift_of the soul from tlig body has hp,eii3eSCrihgcHt
is said : — " Theniiskno\\7lede
tJlftJinj2£l, and

a caterpillar,afte£4^ a

iHl^JiQther, and jjraw^ it^elLQ^^-ta^mixU it,

-^C->^> t IIP, jsouj also, after it has shaken oiLthe body, and freed
itself frojn^qjS^}raticcL,(^e. empirical existence J^jaajvesa
beginiiing upon an^tjier^jiiid^lrji^^

_JjL_ As the goldsmith takes the material from a piece of
carvin, and from it chisels out another newer, fairer

,

form, s_o_jL
and rid itself

faslnojis for itsp.lf n.nojjier_

the

-•**

other

2 Rigv. X. 117. 9.

3 Brih. 4. 4. 2-6.

DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION

331

this or that<1ju^g£j^4!£te

be iinrn. He who does good will be born good, he who
does evil will be born evil ; he becomes holy by holy
deeds, evil by evil. Therefore, in truth, it is said:1-
' Man is altogether and throughout composed of desire
(kdma) ; in proportion to his desire so is his discretion
(kratu), in proportion to his discretion so he performs Acts
(karma], in proportion to his acts so does it result to
him.' On this subject is the verse :—

To that he clings, after that he strives with deeds,
By which his inner man and his desire hold fast ;

He who has arrived at the final goal

Of the deeds which he here commits,

He returns from yonder world again

Back to this world of work.

This is the experience of those who feel desire
( kdmayamdna ). "

This passage does not yet recognise a twofold
retribution, in a future world and again upon earth,
but only one by transmigration. Immediatevafter
death the spul^anlers into a new,

the illustrationof
eaten up one
fact that the

or eyjl^deeds.

This is shown not only by
as^soonf

I i 1 1 TT

1C

elf to

and

the personal Brahman, that consequently the worlds of
the fathers and the gods cannot be set apart, as according
to the later theory, for a recompense by the side and inde
pendent of that by transmigration. It would be otherwise
if in the appended verse we were obliged with S'ankara to
understand prdpya antam as bhuktvd plialam : — " After
that he has enjoyed (in the other world) the fruit of his
deeds, he returns from that world to this world of action."

1 cp. S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3. 1, Chand. 3. 14.

1.

332 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

In that case the verse (which under any circumstances
is a later addition) would be in contradiction with the pre
ceding words. It may however very well mean : — " After
that he has finished with one life-course (like the cater
pillar with its leaf), he returns after death to a new life."

The escha-tology therefore of JTainavalkhya l does not
jetj^cognisejij^

ajgmi__by a new life, but as is natural, only one by a re-
J^rtb_jnJ^hej3^^ of men,

fathers and gods)! In place^fTTTe ancient Vedic recom
pense in the other world, there is found the recompense
by transmigration. It is no longer said of the man who
obtains deliverance, — "He escapes recurrent death," but
k' he does not return back again."2

5. Further Development of the Doctrine of
Transmigration

The ancient element in religious faiths is wont, as we
have often had occasion to emphasise,3 to assert its
traditionally consecrated right side by side with concep
tions of later origin. Accordingly we see here also how by
the side of the belief in a return to earth the ancient ideas
of a recompense of good and evil in the other world
persist, and become united with the doctrine of trans
migration, so that now all good and evil actions
experience a twofold retribution, once in the other
world and again by a renewed life upon earth. And
thus that which has already received a full recompense is
recompensed yet again, and strictly speaking the entire
conception of a recompense is destroyed. This is the case
in the chief text of the doctrine of transmigration.4 We

1 Jii-ih. 1-5.

2 Chand. 4. 15. 6, 8. 15, Biih. 6. 2. 15, Pras'na 1. 10, etc.

3 Allfjemeine Einleitung, p. 180, supra p. 117.

4 Chand. 5. 3-10 = Bjih. 6. 2.

DOCTRINE OF THE FIVE FIRES 333

have however, as already remarked/ to distinguish two
parts in this chief text, an older part,2 which we propose
to call the doctrine of the five fires (in a narrower sense),
and a later,3 to which we give the name of the doctrine
of the two ways. Two of the questions proposed at the
outset refer to the former, the three others to the latter.
The difference of the two parts is clearly shown by the
fact that according to the doctrine of the two ways, faith,
s'raddhd, leads to Brahman without return, while accord
ing to the doctrine of the five fires it is this which above,
ali constitutes the motive for the return to earth.

The first and older part, the doctrine of the five fives,
apparently assumes, like the expressions of Yajnavalkhya
that have been already quoted, the absence of recompense
in the other world ; but depicts how the soul, after it has
journeyed to heaven on the burning of the corpse "in
radiant form," 4 returns thence immediately, as it seems,
through the three regions of the universe, heaven atmo
sphere and earth, and through the bodies of father and
mother, these being the five transit stations, to a new
existence. This is the reply to the question proposed at
the beginning : — " Do you know how at the fifth sacrifice
the waters come to speak with human voice ? " Just as
with Yajnavalkhya the doctrine of transmigration makes
its appearance as a great mystery,6 so here also it comes
before us veiled in secrecy as something new, not to be
profaned. And just as to the Christians, who bury the
body, the comparison of it to a seed buried in the earth
suggested itself,7 so in India, where the corpse is burnt,
it is natural to conceive of this burning as a sacrifice. As
the libation poured into the fire (soma, milk, etc.) ascends

1 cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 137, where a fuller discussion of this point will
be found.

2 Chand. 5. 4-9 (Brih. 6. 2. 9-14). 3 Chand. 5. 10 (Brih. 6. 2. 15).
4 Bph. & 2. 14. fi Chanel. 5. 3. 3, Brih. G. 2. 2.
6 Brih. 3. 2. 13, sup. p. 329 f. 7 1 Cor. 15.

334 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in spiritual form to the gods, so the immortal part of man
ascends to heaven from the funeral pyre. This immortal
part is termed by Yajnavalkhya karman, work,1 arid in
our passage is described after the analogy of the sacrificial
fluid as " water," and later on as "faith." These mysti
cally veiled expressions cause the Vedanta theologians
much trouble.2 They signify however essentially the
same, inasmuch as the peculiar essence and so to speak the
soul of the work (karman) that ascends as the sacrificial
vapour (dpas) is the faith (s'raddhd) with which it is
offered. This " work," in Yfijnavalkhya's phrase, this
'; faith." as our passage describes it, probably not inde
pendently of him, ascends to heaven as the immortal part
of man, and is there five times in succession offered up by
the gods in the sacrificial fires of the heaven, the atmo
sphere, the earth, the man, and the woman. By this
means it is changed successively from faith to soma, from
soma to rain, from rain to food, from food to seed, and
from seed to the embryo ; thus it is led to a renewed
existence on earth.

The second half of the chief text, which we propose
to call the doctrine of the two ways, marks a consider
able further advance, and combining the ancient Vedic
eschatology with the doctrine of transmigration, teaches a
twofold recompense (a recompense therefore of that which
has been already recompensed), on the one hand in the
other world, and once again by a return to earth. To
this end it represents the souls of the dead as ascending
by two different ways, the Devaydna (way of the gods)
and the Pitriydna (way of the fathers). These lead
through several stations, that at times appear strange but
which yet admit of explanation, if we take into con
sideration the origin of the doctrine. As early as the
Rigveda and the Brahmanas mention is frequently made

1 sup. p. 330. 2 cp. Syat. d. Vedanta, pp. 401, 408.

DEVAYANA AND ITPK1YANA 335

of the Devaydna, which was originally in all probability
the way by which Agni bore the sacrificial gifts to the
gods, or the latter descended to them. It was then also
the way by which the pious dead ascended to the gods,
in order to live in eternal felicity with them, or, as later
times preferred to express it, with Brahman. A more
detailed description of the way of the gods is given in
Chand. 4. 15. 5. On the burning of the corpse the soul
enters into the flame, thence into the day, thence into the
bright half of the month, thence into the bright half of the
year (the summer season), thence into the year, thence
into the sun, thence into the moon, thence into the
lightning, and so finally into Brahman. The use of
periods of time here as divisions of space occurs elsewhere
also,1 and needs in India no further remark. The
meaning of the whole is that the soul on the way of the
gods reaches regions of ever-increasing light, in which is
concentrated all that is bright and radiant, as stations on
the way to Brahman, who is himself the " light of lights"
(jyotishdm jyotis).

The Pitriydna or way of the fathers was next explained
after the analogy of this Devaydna. As everything that
was bright and radiant was directed to the latter, so to
the former the counterpart of darkness and gloom. The
difficulty however arose here that it was impossible to
omit the moon from the Pitriydna, and that this already
belonged to the Devaydna. For, according to an old
somewhat obscure conception, the moon was the abode of
the departed,2 and thus later on 3 its waxing and waning
were brought into connection with the ascent and descent
of the souls. Maintaining therefore the moon as the final
goal, the Pitriydna was explained in other respects in
analogy with the Devaydna, the soul entering into the

1 S'atap. Br. 1. 3. 5. 11, Clumd. 2. 10. 5. 2 Kausli. 2. 8.

3 Brih. 6. 2. 16, Kaush. 1. 2, but not Kaush. 2. 9.

336 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

smoke not the flame, the night not the day, the dark half
of the month not the bright, the months of winter not of
summer, the world of the fathers not the year, the akas'a 1 not
the sun, and finally as in the Devayana into the moon, not
however as a transit station, but in order to remain there
"as long as a remnant (of good works) yet exists.2 Our
text skilfully evades giving a description of the transitory
blessedness in the moon. In its place the ancient idea of
the soma cup of the gods makes its appearance, which,
after they have drained it, is each time refilled.3 As far as
this repletion is possible by means of the souls,4 the latter
are enjoyed by the gods ; and this is again interpreted in
the later Vedanta of a mutual enjoyment of the gods and
the pious dead in intercourse with one another. The
felicity in the moon lasts ydvat sampdtam " as long as
a remnant exists."5 In this it is implied that the retri
bution there is complete. Nevertheless there follows a
second recompense upon earth. The descent is here not,
as in the doctrine of the five fires, a passing through the
five sacrificial fires as faith, soma, rain, food and seed, but a
progressive materialisation of the substance of the souls
into ether, wind, smoke, mist, cloud, rain, herbage, food and
seed, to which succeeds the entrance into the womb of a
new mother and the renewed birth. By the side of the
way of the gods, which for the wise and faithful leads to
an entrance into Brahman without return, and the way of
the fathers, which in requital for sacrifice, works of piety,
and asceticism guides to the moon and thence back to
earth, our text originally but only obscurely pointed to the
" third place " as the fate of the wicked, who are born
again as lower animals.

1 Only in the Chanel. 2 Chand. 5. 10. 5.

3 cp. Rigv. X. 85. 5 : — " when they drain thee, 0 god, thou dost thereupon
well up again."

4 Kaush. 2. 8, 1. 2. * Chand. 5. 10. 5.

DEVAYANA AND PITRIYlNA 337

The additions which are wanting in Brih. 6. 2. 16,
and inserted in Chand. 5. 10. 7 alone, take us a step
further in the development of these ideas. In contrast
with the original text of the doctrine of the two
ways, a distinction is here drawn among the souls
returning from the moon between those of " pleasing
conduct" and those of "abominable conduct." The
former are born again as Brahmans, Kshatriyas or
Vais'yas, the latter as dogs, pigs or c'andalas. By this
means the " third place " by the side of the ways of
the gods and the fathers becomes now superfluous, and
ought entirely to disappear, but is nevertheless allowed
to remain.

This contradiction, like the above-mentioned incon
gruity involved in the position of the moon on the ways
both of the gods and the fathers, seems to have been early
noticed. Kaush. 1. 2 is to be regarded as an attempt to
relieve both these disadvantages. Here it is emphatically
declared, with the view of obviating the necessity for
the " third place," that " all who depart from this world
go without exception to the moon." There however their
knowledge is put to the test, and according to the result
they go either by the Devaydna l which leads to Brahman
without return, or (the name Pitriyana is not used) they
enter upon a new birth. " whether as a worm or a fly or a
fish or a bird or a lion or a boar or a serpent or a tiger or
a man, or as something else." This enumeration seems to
be an imitation of that found in Chand. 6. 9. 3, 6. 10. 2 ;
for there it was justified by the context, while here it
appears somewhat superfluous.

Of later passages, which all to a greater or less
extent depend upon that already discussed, we propose
in conclusion to cite only the most important. In
Kath. 2. 10 the transitoriness of the treasure of

1 Kaush. 1. 3.

22

338 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

good works1 is taught. In reference to the return it is
further said : 2-

One goes into the womb of a mother,

Becoming incarnate in bodily form ;

Another enters into a plant,

Each according to his deeds, according to his knowledge.

Mund. 1. 2. 10 exhibits more evidently its dependence
on Chand. 5. 3-10 :—

Having tasted joy on the summit of the heaven of works,
They return back into this world, and even lower.

Iii a later passage also reference is made to the five
fires of the Panc'dgnividyd : 3-

From it originates the fire, whose fuel the sun is,4
From the soma the rain springs,5 plants from the earth,
The husband pours out the stream upon the wife,6
Many descendants are born to the spirit.

The ways of the fathers and of the gods are described
in Pras'na 1. 9-10 on the basis of Chand. 5. 10 (mis
understanding however the expression " s'raddhd tapri "
iti of Chand. 5. 10. 1). For confirmation reference is
made to the verse Rigv. I. 164. 12, which nevertheless has
nothing to do with the subject.

XV. EMANCIPATION

1. Significance of the Doctrine of Emancipation

Love of life is the strongest of all the instincts
implanted in human nature. In order to preserve life
we make any sacrifice. We desire a long life for ourselves
and our friends ; we congratulate those who attain it,

1 s'tvadhi, as in Taitt. Br. 3. 10. 11. 2. 8 Kath. 5. 7.

8 Mund. 2. 1. 5 ; cp. Chand. 5. 4 f. 4 Chand. 5. 4. 1.

* Chand. 5. 5. 2. 6 Chand. 5. 8. 2.

EMANCIPATION 339

and commiserate those who are called away before their
time. And the reason of our mourning for one so
prematurely deceased is (when once we give to ourselves
a clear account of it) not so much that he is wanting to
us, as rather that we are wanting to him. We pity him
because he has been so early deprived of existence, as
though this were a supreme good. When we console
ourselves over the death of a relative by recalling the
sufferings, perils and hardships, from which he has escaped,
this is the voice of reflection. A purely natural feeling
expresses itself differently. It tells us that the loss of life
is the most serious by which a man can be overtaken ;
that the most severe punishment is always that of death.
Indeed, so strong in us is the instinct for life, that our
whole existence is nothing more than this desire unfolding
itself in space as the body and in time as the life.

How is it possible under these circumstances that in
the course of development there could arise repeatedly
amongst men and become established a disposition to
regard that craving for life, upon which our entire
empirical existence depends, as something which ought
not properly to be ? So that man's true duty is conceived
to be not the satisfaction of the natural craving, but its
suppression, and therefore the highest goal appears as
a release (moksha), and that not such a release as death
brings from a definite existence, but release from existence
in general, which as our innate consciousness shows is not
to be attained simply through death.

This rarest of all changes of inclination may be traced
nowhere more clearly than in India, where deliverance,
unmodified by the play upon it of the accidental events
of history, appears not as a ransom, an atonement, a
propitiation, etc., but merely as a release from empirical
existence with all its desires, these last being regarded
as fetters (bandlia, graha), as bonds (granthi), which

340 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

bind the soul to the objects of sense. Even in India it
was not always so, and a long period of development, a
vast interval, separates the poets of the Rigveda, who,
filled with a warm desire for life, shrink from death,1 and
wish for themselves and their posterity a life of a hundred
years, from the words with which the greatest Indian poet
closes his masterpiece : —

May he, the god, who fashioned me Ivy his almighty power,
Himself avert from me and destroy my re-birth.

Yet the philosophy of the future will often turn its
glance to India in order to study the doctrine of
emancipation in the land of its birth. We propose now
to do what we can to render intelligible this most
remarkable of all doctrines.

2. Origin of the Doctrine of Emancipation

Albrecht Weber in one of his very remarkable exposi
tions 2 gave utterance to the conjecture that the doctrine
of emancipation is necessitated by the dogma of trans
migration. The idea that for the deeds of this brief life
either eternal reward or eternal punishment must follow
in the other world would have jarred upon the gentle
disposition and thoughtful mind of the Indian. From
this dilemma he tried to save himself by the dogma of
transmigration. In reality however he only became
deeper entangled, since on the eternal retribution a parte.
post is imposed yet another a parte ante. He therefore
eventually saved himself by " cutting the knot," by
representing the destruction of the entire individual
existence as effected in emancipation ; so that now that
which in the olden time was reckoned as the severest
punishment appears as the supreme reward of all en
deavour. Apart however from the fact that the eman-

1 Rigv. VII. 89. 2 Zeitschr. d. D. M. G.t ix. 239.

EMANCIPATION 341

cipation of pre-Buddhistic times was from beginning to
end no annihilation, but rather the precise opposite, a
transcending of that which was in itself worthless, this
ingenious explanation fails to harmonise with the course
of historical development, for the additional reason that,
as we shall see, the doctrine of emancipation is older
than that of transmigration, and cannot therefore be a
consequence of the latter.

The attempt has often been made to understand man's
lonoino- for deliverance from another side as the result of

O o

the heavy pressure upon the Indian people of the
Brahmanical system. Thereby, according to the view
suggested, the ancient delight in existence had been
ruined and lost in consequence of the subservience of the
mind to the Brahmans, and the body to the Kshatriyas.
But not to mention that the conditions of life in the rich
valley of the Ganges were in all probability hardly worse
than formerly in the Panjab, and that the idea of eman
cipation had certainly arisen not in the circle of the
oppressed but rather in that of the oppressors, a disposi
tion to pessimism, such as the theory assumes, was not at
all peculiar to the times in which the doctrine of eman
cipation arose.1 It is true that by emancipation suffering
also with all its possibilities was removed ; but Buddhism
was the first to transform that which was a mere con
sequence into a motive, and by conceiving emancipation
as an escape from the sufferings of existence, to make
selfishness the ultimate mainspring of existence, — even
if not to the extent that was done later by Islam, which
is never weary of depicting to the people the glories of
heaven and the terrors of hell.

The doctrine in question cannot be derived from these
or any other motives that have their seat in the will, for
the very reason that it is the abrogation of all desire

1 sup. pp. 140 f ., 254 f .

342 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(yatra kdmdh pardgatdh), and that certainly as early
as its very first appearance. Accordingly it remains to I
seek for its original motive in the sphere of the intellect ; -I
and here we shall find the doctrine of emancipation to
be so entirely the necessary consequence and final con
summation of the doctrine of the atman, that it is to be
regarded only as a personal and so to speak practical
application of the Upanishad view of the universe as a
whole, which we have hitherto been engaged in ex
pounding. This we now propose to show.

It is a natural idea that finds expression in all the
systems of philosophy, when men regard that which for
them is the first principle of things and the ultimate basis
of the universe as at the same time the highest aim of
personal endeavour. In olden times this was the gods,
and thus union with the gods after death was the supreme
wish of the ancient Vedic rishis, in order to attain to
fellowship (sdyujyam), companionship (salokatd), com
munity of being (sariipatd] with Agni, Varuna, Indra,
Aditya, etc. Later on the (impersonal) Brahman was
exalted above the gods. This then became the final
goal ; and the gods were only the doors, through whom
Brahman might be attained. " By Agni as the door of
Brahman he enters in. When by Agni as the door of
Brahman he enters in, he gains fellowship (sdyujyam),
and companionship (salokatd) with Brahman." In the
final step the creative principle of the universe was
conceived to be the atman, the self, and as was to be
expected union with the atman became now the aim of
all endeavour and longing. This took place before
anything was yet known of transmigration, but only of
a renewed death in the other world, as the following
passages prove. " Only he who knows him (the purusha)
escapes from the kingdom of death ; by no other road

1 S'atap. Br. 11. 4. 4. 1.

EMANCIPATION 343

is it possible to go " ; l " He who knows him, the wise
long-emancipated youthful atman, no more fears death " ; 2
" The self (dtmari) is his pathfinder, he who finds him
is no longer stained by action, that evil thing." : The last
expression in particular shows that here the thought of
emancipation is already present in all its entirety. So
also in the following passage, which has been already
quoted above for another purpose : — " Himself (the atman)
is free from desire, in possession of all that he desires,
no desire for anything whatever (tempts) him. With
reference to this is the following verse :—

By knowledge they climb upwards
Thither, where desire is at rest ;
Neither sacrificial gift reaches thither,
Nor the penance of the ignorant.

For yonder world cannot be attained by sacrificial gifts
or by asceticism by the man who does not know this.
For that state belongs only to him who has this know
ledge." ' The rejection of work and asceticism, the
emphasising of knowledge, and the suppression of all
desire, are proofs that this passage has in view emancipa
tion as a union with the atman. But this union is still
represented in harmony with traditional ideas as an ascent
to heavenly regions, — as though the atman were to be
sought elsewhere than in ourselves. Thus a few pages
further on in the passage S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3, already
translated above,5 which teaches that destiny in the other
world is determined by the degree of insight (kratu)
which men have attained here below ; and which then as
the deepest insight imparts the knowledge of the atman,
who, filling all space and pervading all the universe, is
greater than heaven and earth, and yet smaller than a

1 Vaj. Sariih. 31. 18. 2 Atharvav. 10. 8. 44.

3 Taitt. Br. 3. 12. 9. 8. * S'atap. Br. 10. 5. 4. 15.

6 Allgemeine Einleitung u. Philosophic des Veda, p. 2G4.

344 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

grain of rice or millet, dwells in the inner self. In
conclusion it is said : — " He is my soul (atman) ; thither
to this soul on my departure hence shall I enter in." l
Who does not feel the inner contradiction of these words,
and that if the atman is really my soul, no further entrance
into it is needed !

A slight barrier only remained to he thrown down in
order to see that that which is ever being sought at an
infinite distance is nearer to us than anything else, and
that the emancipation desired as union with God, union
with Brahman, union with the fitman, does not require
to be attained for the first time in the future after death,
but is actually attained already here and now and from the
very beginning, — by him " who knows this."

It is Yajnavalkhya of the Brihadaranyaka who meets
us again as the man who drew this final consequence of
the doctrine of the atman.

3. The Knowledge, of the Atman is Emancipation
Emancipation is not to be regarded as a becoming
something which previously had no existence. In the
first place, because in the sphere of metaphysical phenomena
to which emancipation belongs there is in general no
becoming but only a being (as all metaphysical thinkers,
not only in India but in the West also, from Parmenides
and Plato down to Kant and Schopenhauer, have recog
nised). The law of causation rules without exception
everything that is finite, but nothing that lies outside and
beyond, or like emancipation leads beyond. But for a
further reason also emancipation cannot be a coming into
being of that which did not previously exist, since it could
not then be summum bonum. For everything that comes
to be is transient ; that which from nothingness became
something may also return back from being something
1 S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3.

EMANCIPATION 345

into its nothingness. What the wave threw up it may
sweep away again ; TO /^rj^ev et? ov&ev pe

[f deliverance had a beginning,
Then it could not but have an end,

as Gaudapada rightly says,1 nor could it be summum
bonum, or id quo majus cogitari nequit, for we might
always think of as a higher good an emancipation which
had not come into being, and therefore was not exposed to
the danger of vanishing away.

Emancipation therefore (which we must not judge by
our one-sided Western ideas which have been shaped from
historical and therefore narrow conditions) is not properly
a new beginning, a icaivrj /men?, but only the perception of
that which has existed from eternity, but has hitherto
been concealed from us :—

All souls are originally

Free from darkness and without stain,

" Already awakened and delivered before the world was,

They rise up," saith the Master.2

We are all emancipated already (how could we other
wise become so !), " but just as he who does not know the
place of a hidden treasure fails to find it, though he passes
over it constantly, so all these creatures fail to find the
world of Brahman, though they daily (in deep sleep) enter
into it ; for by unreality are they turned aside.3 This
unreality is removed by the knowledge " I am Brahman,"
am in truth not an individual, but the atman, the sum and
substance of all reality, the first principle which creates,
upholds and preserves all worlds. " And therefore to-day
also he who knows this ' I am Brahman ' becomes this
universe ; and even the gods have no power to prevent
his so becoming; for he is its soul (dtman)." This

1 Karika 4. 30. 2 Gauclap. 4. 98.

» Chand. 8. 3. 2. *Brih. 1. 4. 10.

346 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

thought is briefly and strikingly expressed in Mund. 3. 2.
9 : — " In truth, he who knows that supreme atman, he
becomes Brahman," or more correctly "he is already
Brahman " (sa yo ha vai tat paramam brahma veda
brahma era bhavati). For deliverance is not effected
by the knowledge of the atman, but it consists in this
knowledge ; it is not a consequence of the knowledge of
the Atman, but this knowledge is itself already deliverance
in all its fulness. lie who knows himself as the atman, the
first principle of things, he is by that very knowledge free
from all desires (akdmayamdna), for he knows everything
in himself, and there is nothing outside of himself for him
to continue to desire : — dptakdmasya kd sprihd f " what
can he desire who has everything ? " l And further, he
who knows himself as the atman " is not inflamed by
what he has done and left undone," whether it be good or
evil,2 his works consume away like the reed-stalk in the
fire,3 and future works do not cling to him, as water does
not remain on the leaf of the lotus flower.4 His indi
viduality, the basis of all works, he has seen to be an
illusion, in that he has gained possession of the knowledge
of the atman, and therein of emancipation :—

He who beholds that Loftiest and Deepest,
For him the fetters of the heart break asunder,
For him all doubts are solved,
And his works become nothingness.5

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ATMAN DOES NOT EFFECT
EMANCIPATION, IT is EMANCIPATION. — If we seek for
the origin of this thought that runs through the whole
of the Upanishad literature, we are referred back to the

1 Gaudap. 1. 9.

2 Brih. 4. 4. 22, Chand. 8. 4. 1, 8. 13, Mund. 3. 1. 3, Taitt. 2. 9, Kaush. 1.
4, 3. 1, Mund. 3. 2. 9, Maitr. 2. 7, 6. 34, etc.

s Chand. 5. 24. 3 ; cp. Brih. 5. 14. 8. 4 Chand. 4. 14. 3.

8 Mund. 2. 2. 8.

EMANCIPATION 347

discourses of Yajnavalkhya that are presented in Brili. 3
and 4.1

We begin with Brih. 4. 2. Yfijfiavalkhya addresses
King Jauaka, whom we are to consider as occupying the
foremost position among the sages of his time (somewhat
as Narada in Chand. 7. 1): — "Since then you are now
rich in attendants and goods, hast studied the Veda and
hast listened to the mystical doctrine (art adhUaveda
and ukta-upanishatka), tell me, whither will you go when
once you depart hence ? " " I do not know, reverend sir,
whither I shall go" (he does not know, in spite of
devaydna and devaloka, of which assuredly mention was
made in his Vedas and Upanishads ; the king seems no
longer to place absolute confidence in their revelations).
Yajfiavalkhya rejoins :— " Then will I declare to you
whither you will go." "Declare it, reverend sir." What
are we to expect to hear ? Something at any rate which
could not be more forcibly indicated than by this intro
duction as absolutely new at that period.

To begin with, Yajfiavalkhya describes the individual
atman, how it dwells in the heart, Indra and Viriij like as
it were its feelers reach to the two eyes, and together
with them are nourished by the blood-clots of the
heart. Suddenly while he is speaking in so gross and
materialistic a fashion of the individual atman, a mist as
it were is removed from our eyes : — " The anterior (eastern)
regions of the heavens are his anterior organs, the right-
hand (southern) regions of the heavens are his right-hand
organs," etc., " all the regions of the heavens are all his
organs. He however, the atman, is not so, not so. lie is
inapprehensible, for he is not apprehended, indestructible,
for he is not destroyed, unattachable, for nothing attaches
itself to him ; he is not fettered, he stirs not, he suffers

*It is from the circle of his thought that the words of Brih. 1. 4. 10 also,
already quoted above p. 345, are derived ; cp. Brih. 1. 4. 3.

348 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

no harm. 0 Janaka, you have attained peace. Thus
Yajnavalkhya spake. "

The last expression leaves no doubt on the point that
herein the intention is to impart the highest instruction,
in which we are to seek for the answer to the initial
question, " Whither will you go when once you depart
hence ? " And the answer asserts that the soul after
death goes nowhere where it has not been from the
very beginning, nor does it become other than that
which it has always been, the one eternal omni
present fitman.

The doubts which in view of the abrupt form of the
paragraph might be felt as to the correctness of this
interpretation, are completely removed by the unmistake-
able teaching which Yajnavalkhya imparts to Janaka in
Brih. 4. 3-4. After that return to a new existence upon
earth has been taught here as the fate of the kdmaya-
mdna, " consumed by desire " (one who therefore does not
yet know himself as the fitman), there follow words than
which deeper, truer, more noble were never uttered by
human lips :—

" Now concerning the man free from desire (akdmaya-
mdna). He who without desire, free from desire, desire
being laid to rest, is himself his own desire, his vital
spirits do not withdraw, but he is Brahman, and ascends
to Brahman. On this subject is the following verse :—

When every passion vanishes
That finds a home in the human heart,
Then he who is mortal becomes immortal,
Here already he has attained to Brahman.

As the skin of a snake lies cast off and dead upon an
antheap, so this body then lies. But the bodiless, the
immortal, the life is pure Brahman, is pure light." :

We propose in the first place to use these passages to

1 Brih. 4. 4. 6-7.

EMANCIPATION 349

throw light upon certain other expressions of Yajnavalkhya
which in themselves are obscure.

" ' Yajnavalkhya,' thus he spake, ' when a man dies,
do the vital spirits wander forth from him or not ? ' ' By
no means,' said Yajnavalkhya, ' but they remain gathered
together at the very same place ; his body swells up,
becomes inflated, and he lies there dead and inflated."
In this passage, as has been already remarked,2 no restric
tion to those who are already emancipated is implied, since
inflation by the expanding gases may be observed in every
body without distinction. Yet we are compelled, as seems
to have been done already by the Madhyandinas, to
interpret the wrords only of the emancipated, if we would
not set ourselves in irreconcilable contradiction with the
words of Yajnavalkhya elsewhere : — " When the life
departs, all the vital organs depart with it.";

Still more obscure is the following : — " ' Yajnavalkhya,'
thus he spake, ' when a man dies, what is it that then does
not leave him ? ' ' The name,' he answered, ' for the name
is infinite, infinite are the vis've devdh, and he gains with
it the infinite world.' " 4 Here we are compelled to under
stand by the name the infinite "objective world," as
has been already shown.5 As long as this continues to
subsist, the knowing subject also that sustains it preserves
its existence.

It is in harmony with this explanation that Yajna
valkhya asserts in Brih. 2. 4. 12,6 in answer to Maitreyi :
— " After death there is no consciousness " ; and explains
this by saying that the imperishable indestructible atman
(avinds'in, anuc'c'hittidharman7) has after death no further
consciousness of objects, because as knowing subject he
has everything in himself, nothing outside of himself, con-

1 Brih. 3. 2. 11. 2 See Deussen, Upan., p. 431.

3 Brih. 4. 4. 2. 4 Brih. 3. 2. 12. 6 Deussen, Upan., p. 431.

6 = 4. 5. 13. 7 4. 5. 14.

350 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

sequently " has no longer any contact with matter " (mdtrd-
asamsargas tu asya bhavati).1

The mystical declaration also of Brili. 3. 2. 10 con
cerning the water (of knowledge), which is able to quench
the fire of death, is thus satisfactorily explained.

Yajnavalkhya has therefore entirely anticipated
Schopenhauer's definition of immortality as an "inde
structibility without continued existence."2 Just as for
the wise there is no longer any reality in the universe or
in transmigration, so immortality also as prolonged exist
ence after death is a part of the great illusion, the hollow-
ness of which lie has proved.

From the numerous passages in the later Upanishads,
which in a similar way to the speeches of Yajnavalkhya
hitherto discussed celebrate the knowledge of the atman
as emancipation, a few may here be set down.

" Yet he who has in thought conceived himself as the Self,
How can he still wish to bind himself to the ills of the body?
Him who in the profound defilement of the body
Has awakened to a knowledge of the Self,
Him know as almighty, as the worlds' creator !
The universe is his, for he himself is the universe.

The man who has beheld God

As his own self face to face ;

The Lord of that which was and is to be,

He feels no fear nor hides himself in dread.

At whose feet rolling on by days and years time advances,

Whom the gods adore as light of lights, as immortality,

On whom depends the fivefold host of living beings, together with space,

Him know I as my soul, immortal the immortal.3

The seer sees not death,
Nor sickness nor fatigue ;
The All alone the Seer sees,
The All he everywhere pervades.4

1 5. 4. 14 MAdhy.; cp. Deussen, Upan., p. 485 rem.

2 Elements of Metaphysics, § 249.

8 Brih. 4. 4. 12-13, 15-17. « Chand. 7. 26. 2.

EMANCIPATION 351

He before whom words recoil
And thought, failing to find him,
Who knows this bliss of Brahman,
He no longer fears aught.1

Only he who knows it not knows it,
He who knows it knows it not.
Unknown by the wise,
Known by the ignorant.

In whom it wakes to life,
He knows it and finds immortality ;
Because he is it, manhood is his, "
Because he knows it, immortality.2

The one Lord and inner self of all living beings,
He his one form expands in many ways.
He who, the wise, sees himself dwelling in himself
He alone, and no other, is eternally blessed.

Not by speech, not by thought,

Not by sight do we apprehend him ;

" He is ! " By this word is he apprehended,

And not in any other way.

"He is!" thus may he be apprehended,
So far as he is the reality of both ;
" He is ! " who has thus apprehended him,
To him his essential nature becomes manifest.

When all the suffering vanishes,
Which finds a home in the human heart,
Then he who is mortal becomes immortal,
Here already he attains to Brahman.

When all fetters burst asunder
That are woven around the human heart,
Then he who is mortal becomes immortal,
Thus far the doctrine extends.3

Yet he who here recognises again
All living beings in himself,
And himself in everything that lives,
He no longer is vexed by any.

Taitt. 2. 9. 2 Keua n_12t 3 K.i,. 5> 12 6> !2_15

352 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

Here where the knowing self

Becomes all living beings : —

How could error be, how pain,

For him who thus beholds the unity ? *

The darkness vanishes, there is no longer day nor night ;
Neither bc-ing nor not-being, — blessed alone is he ;
He is the syllable Om, Savitar's beloved light,
From him knowledge flowed forth in the beginning.2

He who, his spirit purified by contemplation,
Plunges into the utman, — what measureless blessedness he feels !
That for the expression of which words are of no avail
Must be experienced within in the inmost heart.3

He who still craves for his desires and clings to them,
Will through his desires be born here and there ;
He whose desires are laid to rest, whose self is prepared,
From him all desires vanish here below.

He who beholds that Loftiest and Deepest,
For him the fetters of the heart break asunder,
For him all doubts are solved,
And his works become nothingness.

Like streams flow and disappear in the ocean,
Abandoning name and form,
So the wise, freed from name and form,
Enter into that supreme divine spirit.4

In the world's false show that has known no beginning,
The soul slumbers ; when it awakes,
Then there wakes in it the Eternal,
Beyond time and sleep and dreams.5

(The emancipated soul speaks) :—

That which as enjoyment, enjoyment's object,
And enjoyer knows the three states,
Distinct therefrom, 0 spectator,
Pure spirit I am ever blessed.

In me the universe had its origin
In me alone does the All subsist,
In me it vanishes, this Brahman,
The timeless, it is I myself.

1 s-ii G-7. 2 S'vet. 4. 18. " Maitr. 6. 34.

4 Mund. 3. 2. 2, 2. 2. 8, 3. 2. 8. a Mandukya-Karika 1. 16.

EMANCIPATION 353

The smallest of the small I am, and none the less am I great,

I am the motley rich universe,

I am the Ancient, the spirit, the lord,

Altogether of gold I am, the blessed Manifestation.

Without hands or feet am I, yet infinitely powerful,
I see without eyes, hear without ears ;
I am the wise, and beside me
None other is wise in endless years.

In all the Vedas I am to be known,

I am the fulfiller of the Vedas, learned in the Vedas,

Free from good and evil, imperishable,

Unbegotten am I, without body or sensation ;

For me there is neither earth nor water,

Nor fire, nor yet wind or ether.1

On the basis of this and other passages we propose
finally to attempt here to give a brief characterisation of
those who have gained release.

The knowledge of the atman does not effect emancipa
tion, but it is emancipation ; for he who possesses it has
found the existence of the universe as well as his own
bodily and individual existence to be an illusion (mayo).
Everything else follows from this.

(1) The wise man is akdmayamana. Every wish,
craving, desire, all hope and fear have for him been
destroyed ; for all this presupposes an object to which it
is related. Such an object however no longer exists for
the wise man. " In truth, after that they have become
conscious of this soul, Brahmans abstain from desire for
children and possessions and the world, and wander about
as beggars. For desire for children is desire for posses
sions, and desire for possessions is desire for the world ;
for all together are vain desire."5 " This the men of old
time knew, when they ceased to long for descendants and
said, ' What need have we of descendants, we whose soul
this universe is. "' 3 Gaudapada sums this up briefly and

1 Kaivalya 18-23. 2 Brih. 3. 5. 3 Brih. 4. 4. 22.

23

354 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

strikingly in the words :l — "What can he desire wlio_Jias
all ? " The wise man therefore no longer experiences fear.
"He who knows this bliss of Brahman is not afraid
either now or at any time " ; 2 he is no longer vexed by
anything";3 "for wherefore should he fear? since fear
assuredly is of a second." 4

(2) The knowledge of the atman transcends in
dividuality, and therefore the possibility of pain. " He
who knows the fitman overcomes sorrow."5 "He who is
in the body is possessed by desire and pain, for because
he is in the body no safeguard is possible against desire
and pain. He however who is free from the body is not
affected by desire and pain." ( " He therefore who has
crossed this bridge is like a blind man who gains his sight,
like a wounded man who is healed, like a sick man who
becomes whole." 7

(3) "And his works become nothingness."8 All
works, the good as well as the evil, become of no effect
for him who has attained knowledge, as is often affirmed.9
For the individuality which gave rise to them is for the
wise only a part of that great universal illusion which
he has succeeded in penetrating.

(4) For the same reason future works no longer cling
to him, as the water does not cling to the leaf of the lotus
flower.10 For him to do evil is entirely excluded by his
freedom from all desire. " Therefore he who knows this
is tranquil, subdued, resigned, patient and self-controlled.
He sees the Self only in himself, he regards everything as
the Self. Evil does not overcome him, he overcomes all
evil . . . free from evil, free from suffering, and free from
doubt, he becomes a Brahman, he whose universe Brahman

1 Kdrika 1.9. 2 Taitt, 2. 4. 3 Kath. 4. 5, 12.

4 Brih. 1. 4. 2. 6 Chund. 7. 1. 3. c Chfmd. 8. 12. 1.

7 CMnd. 8. 4. 2. 8 Mund. 2. 2. 8.

9 cp. the passage* quoted above, p. 345 f. 10 Chand. 4. 14. 3.

EMANCIPATION IN EMPIRICAL FORM 355

is." :< Whereby does this Brahman live? By living as
chance may determine."5 His future condition, as far as
the bodily state is concerned, which he has cast off like
the skin of a snake, is entirely without importance :—

No matter whether a man wish for himself
A hundred years, pursuing his work ;
Remain then, as thus them art, not otherwise,
The stain of work clings not to thee.3

(5) "He who has reached this state in truth feels no
doubt";4 "for him all doubts are solved";5 " free from
doubt he becomes a Brahman."6 Because the knowledge
of the atman does not depend on reflection (tarka),* but
on immediate intuition (anubhava), therefore he can no
longer be shaken by any doubt. The illusion, when once it
has been penetrated, can no longer delude. The question
of the possibility of a relapse is not and cannot be raised.

4. The Doctrine of Emancipation in Empirical Form

(1) The atman is unknowable.

(2) The atman is the sole reality.

^(3) The intuitive knowledge of the atman is emanci
pation.

In these three propositions is contained the meta
physical truth of the teaching of the Upanishads. Its
further development consists in bringing down, though
illegitimately, this metaphysical truth into the sphere
where knowledge is possible (just as among the Greeks
and in later philosophy), and clothing it in empirical form.
(1) The atman becomes an object of knowledge, which in
truth it is not. (2) The reality of the universe is main
tained, and the consequent contradiction is adjusted by
the oft-repeated assertion that the universe is identical

1 Erik 4. 4. 23. 2 Bvih 3 5 3 fg^ 2 4 Chund. 3. 14. 4.

5 Mnnd. 2. 2. 6. 6 Brih. 4. 4. 23. 7 Kath. 2. 9.

356 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

with the atman. (3) Emancipation appears finally and
wrongly in the phenomenal form of causality as a becoming
something which previously had no existence, and in the
phenomenal forms of time and space as the removal of a
temporal and spiritual separation from the atman, which
never really existed and therefore does not need to be
removed.

This is the origin of the empirical and therefore

mistaken view that deliverance (which actually subsisted

from the very beginning, and in the very instant of

recognition becomes ours perfectly and consciously) is

first attained fully with the dissolution of the body.

"To him shall I enter in when I depart hence";1 "to

this (worldly sphere) shall I belong only until I am

delivered; then shall I go home";2 "and when he has

been delivered from the body (or, after that he has been

delivered through knowledge), then (first ultimately in

death) is he delivered," vimuktas' c'a vimuc'yate? The

comparison (of life) to the potter's wheel which ceases

turning when the vessel (deliverance) is finished belongs to

a later period,4 like the distinction between those who are

first delivered in the hour of death (videhamukti), and

those who are already delivered during their life-time

(jivanmukti). This distinction and the above comparison

have their origin primarily from the realistic age of the

Vedanta that finds itself drifting towards the Sfinkhya.

Neither of them meet us in the Upanishads (with quite

late exceptions), and are opposed to the original meaning

of the doctrine of emancipation. According to it, every

man, as soon as he is in possession of the knowledge

of the atman, is jivanmukta. The continuance or

cessation of his bodily existence is to him, as everything

else in the world, a matter of indifference. He gains

i Chand. 3. 14. 4. 2 Chand. 6. 14. 2. 3 KiUh. 5. 1.

4 %*<. «f. Ved., p. 459 ; Garbe, SdhkhyaphiL, p. 182.

EMANCIPATION IN EMPIRICAL FORM 357

nothing by death of which he was not in possession
already beforehand, and is released from nothing from
which he had not been already released previously by
knowledge.

As the theory of the videhamukti together with the
passages of the Upanishads that anticipate it rests upon
the false supposition that between us and the atman a
temporal separation exists ; so the hypothesis of a
spatial separation between the two, so that a departure
hence is necessary in order to reach the atman, is not
less mistaken and depends upon an unwarranted applica
tion of the methods of empirical knowledge. Nevertheless
this mode of representation also is not rare in the
Upanishads, under the influence of the ancient ideas of
a departure to the gods, to Brahman, to the atman.1
That the ideas which thus emerge are far from being
consistent lies in the nature of things. We propose
briefly to survey the most important passages.

In Brih. 3. 3 we have an altogether mythical descrip
tion (though it is put into the mouth of Yajfiavalkhya)
of the way by which the offerers of the as'vamedha as
the highest sacrifice are led hence, between the two
shells of the egg of the universe, into the other world
where the wind receives them. The averting also of re
newed death which is promised at the close to him whc
knows the mind as particular and universal (individual
and cosmical prana) proves that this chapter is still to
be ascribed to the age preceding the Upanishad teaching.
Brih. 5. 10 may be regarded as a continuation of it.
Here a description is given of the reception of the
departed (without distinction) by the wind in the other
world, after which through the sun and moon they
attain " the world that is free from heat and cold (as'okam
ahimam, i.e. free from the contrasts of earthly existence).

1 sup. p. 343 f .

358 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

in order to remain there " perpetual years." The dying
man takes his way to the sun in Brih. 5. 15 l also.
There however he recognises himself as identical with
the purusha in the sun, an idea that already contains
a suggestion of the atman doctrine, although it is
subordinated to traditional mythological conceptions.
The same is true of Chfmd. 5. 13, where in the first
instance the five pranas together with the five correspond
ing organs of sense and the five nature gods are called the
five "openings of the gods" (devasushayas), and are
described as "the five ministers of Brahman and door
keepers of the heavenly world " ; but then " the light which
shines there on yonder side of heaven," which is to be
reached through them, is identified with the light " which
is here within in men." The eschatology also ofChaiid.
8. 1-6 exhibits this intermingling of mythological and
philosophical ideas. Thus in Clifmd. 8. 6. 1-5 the way
hence to the sun is described that leads by the veins and
the sun's rays that join them, although previously in 8. 3
the world of Brahman had been shown to be not at an
incalculable distance, but in the heart. That the funda
mental view here is philosophical, and the mythical
colouring a later embellishment, is proved quite un-
mistakeably by the fact that in 8. 5. 3 from the word
aranyam, the "solitude," into which he who seeks
Brahman retires, are invented " two seas in the world
of Brahman in the third heaven from here " with the
names ara and nya. To this a later hand added further
glories of the world of Brahman (the lake Airammadiyarii,
the fig-tree Somasavana, the mountain Apardjitd, and
the palace Prabhuvimitam). Perhaps the still more
detailed description of the world of Brahman in Kaush.
1. 3 is already derived from this passage. Here among
other things not only does the palace Apardjitam (in

1 ts'a. 15-18.

EMANCIPATION IN EMPIRICAL FORM 359

this place neuter) recur, and a tree Eya appear, but
mention is made also of "the sea Ara." This latter
name might well be a secondary formation from the sea
ara of Chand. 8. 5. 3 ; and it would then be evidence
for the dependent character of this passage. A different
view from Chand. 8. 6. 1-5 is represented in the appended
verse, Chand. 8. 6. 6, which recurs in Kath. 6. 16. Here
the separation of the emancipated as they ascend by the
101st vein is made to take place not on entrance into
the sun, but immediately on quitting the body. With
this is connected the path of the emancipated by the
crown of the head, by fire, wind and sun, up to Brahman,
as is described in Taitt. 1. 6. All these passages are
under the influence of the thought of the Upanishads,
which they clothe in empirical forms, while blending it
with the traditional mythological ideas. This becomes
obtrusive in Ait. 3. 4 ; Vamadeva having recognised
himself as the atman has " ascended from this world, in
yonder world of heaven attained all his desires, and has
become immortal," — very unnecessarily after he had
already realised himself to be identical with the atman,
the first principle of all things.

These conceptions are made clearer by the development
of the theory of the Devayana, as found in Chand. 4. 15.
5, and its connection with the analogous formation of
the Pitriydna in the doctrine of the five fires, the
principal text of the doctrine of transmigration, which
has been already discussed. We saw1 how the souls
of the emancipated were represented as attaining to
Brahman through a series of bright stations (flame, day,
bright half of the month, bright half of the year, year,
sun, moon and lightning), whence "they no longer
return on the downward path to this human existence."
The Pitriyana was then next explained after the analogy

1 sup. p. 335.

360 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

of the Devayana by means of the corresponding dark
stations;1 this however involved, as was shown, the
making the moon common to both ways. This drawback
the author of Kaush. 1. 2 endeavours to remove by
omitting or ignoring the preliminary steps on either
side that lead to the moon, and bringing all thither,
whence the ignorant return back, and the wise tread the
Devayana, to which by way of compensation for the
omitted stages a series of new stations are assigned (moon,
the worlds of fire, wind, Varuna, India, Prajapati and
Brahman). By the later Vedantists these are simply
placed side by side with the previous stations.2 In other
respects also the theory of the less authoritative Kaushitaki
has won a consideration not inferior to that of the
Panc'dgnividyd supported by the authority of Chand.

5. 3-10 and Brih. 6. 2. On it depend almost all the
later representations of the Devayana, for example those
especially that are found in Mund. 1. 2. 11, 3. 1. 6,
Pras'na 1. 10. By its side the thought of Yajnavalkhya
that the knowledge of the atman is in itself emancipa
tion continues to hold its ground, and is often associated
without any attempt at accommodation with the theory
of the Devayana, giving rise as a consequence to abrupt
contradictions; compare for example Kath. 6. 14-15 with

6. 16, or Mund. 3. 2. 2 with 3. 1. 10.

An adjustment of this contradiction was sought by
the later theory of the kramamukti or release by
stages, according to which the souls that for their
devotion ascend on the Devayana to Brahman are not
yet emancipated, since they still fall short of perfect
knowledge ; nevertheless they do not return back to
earth, (for it is said : — " For such there is no return "),3
but attain perfect knowledge and therefore eternal

1 sup. p. 335 f. 2 Sijst. d. Ved., p. 475.

3 Brih. 6. 2. 15, Chand. 4. 15. 5, 8. 15.

PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY 361

deliverance in the world of Brahman before the end
of the kalpa, when that world also is destroyed.1
In the Upanishads the kramamukti appears to be
already advocated by the S'vet. Up. 1. 4, 1. 11, 5. 7.
The verse in Mund. 3. 2. 6 may however be still
older:2-

They who have grasped the meaning of the Vedanta doctrine,
Perfectly resigned, penitent, of unsullied purity,
In the world of Brahman at the end of time
Will all be set free by the Indestructible.

XVI. PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

1. Introduction

Every theory of the universe includes judgements
on the relative value or worthlessness of objects, and
thereby secures an influence on our practical conduct.
Every philosophical system therefore has an ethical side,
whether it be matured or not into a special ethical system ;
and it is precisely this side to which our feeling attaches
so great importance that we are inclined to estimate the
value of a philosophical theory of the universe by the
ethical consequences which have resulted or may be
derived from it. We allow ourselves to be guided in
these matters by the old adage, — " By their fruits ye shall
know them." 3 Even this saying however cannot be taken
without limitations. For to continue the illustration
employed by Jesus, it may happen that a tree is good and
yet bears no, or no good fruit, — possibly because its
blossoms are prematurely touched by the cold breath of
the knowledge of the truth.

This may in fact have been the case in India. Eternal

1 cp. Syst. d. Veddnta, pp. 430, 472.

2 cp. Mahanar. 10. 22, Kaivalya, 3-4. 8 Matt. 716.

362 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

philosophical truth has seldom found more decisive and
striking expression than in the doctrine of the emanci
pating knowledge of the atman. And yet this knowledge
may be compared to that icy-cold breath which checks
every development and benumbs all life. He who knows
himself as the atman is, it is true, for ever beyond the
reach of all desire, and therefore beyond the possibility of
immoral conduct, but at the same time he is deprived
of every incitement to action or initiation of any kind ;
he is lifted out of the whole circle of illusory individual
existence, his body is no longer his, his works no longer
his, everything which he may henceforth do or leave un
done belongs to the sphere of the great illusion, which he
has penetrated, and is therefore of no account. Accord
ingly he lives idris'a eva, " as it happens,"1 and though he
wish for a hundred years of life and enjoyment, no action
will defile him, or will defile you, evam tvayi, "when you
are thus," i.e. when the universe is for you plunged in
the abyss of the divine being. Only painfully and
artificially has the Bhagavad Gita the skill to derive
from these premisses a demand for heroic action, as we
shall see in a later part of our work. When the know
ledge of the atman has been gained, every action, and
therefore every moral action also, has been deprived of

meaning.

Moreover moral conduct cannot contribute directly,
but only indirectly, to the attainment of the know
ledge that brings emancipation. For this knowledge
is not a becoming something which had no previous
existence, and might be brought about by appropriate
means, but it is the perception of that which previously
existed, existed indeed from all eternity. It is compared

1 Brih. 3. 5. 1 ; he is yddric'C'hika, Mumlftkya-K. 2. 37, Paramahaihsa
Up. 4.

2 Is'a. 1. 2.

PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY 363

(as early as the later Upanishads) with awakening,1
and like that follows of itself2 and not by design :—

In the infinite illusion of the universe
The soul sleeps ; when it awakes
Then there wakes in it the Eternal,
Free from time and sleep and dreams.3

It was first at a later period, when the method of
empirical knowledge took entire possession of the doctrine
of emancipation, and conceived it as has been shown under
the category of causality, that the knowledge through which
deliverance is attained came to be regarded as a becoming
something, as an effect of definite causes, which might
therefore be brought about by promoting such causes.
Thus emancipation was conceived, again empirically, in
accordance with the external signs which it manifested.
These signs were principally two :—
1(1) The removal of all desire.
/ (2) The removal of the consciousness of plurality.

It was worth while therefore to produce or at least to
expedite emancipation by artificial means, and the result
was two remarkable manifestations of the culture of India,
which are contained in germ in the older Upanishads, and
in a series of later Upanishads pass through a complete
development.
/ (1) The Sannyasa.
/ (2) The Yoga.

The former seeks by artificial measures to suppress
desire, the latter the consciousness of plurality, and thus
to secure the attainment of the knowledge through which
deliverance is wrought, as far at least as its external signs
are concerned. Practical philosophy is comprised in these

1 prabodha, Haihsa Up. 1, Atmaprabodha 1, Gaudap. 1. 14, 3. 40, 4. 92, 98 ;
cp. pratibuddha, Brih. 4. 4. 13 ; pratibodha, Kena 12 ; jdyrata, Kath. 3. 14 ;
boddhum, Kath. 6. 4 ; nitydh, S'uddho, buddhah, Nrisimhott. 9.

2 Kath. 2. 23. 3 Mandukya-Kar. 1. 16.

364 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

two manifestations of culture, which pursue their course
on parallel lines, and often touch ; and it has been
developed out of the thoughts of the Upanishads (empiric
ally conceived). This we have yet briefly to treat, as
far as the materials afforded by the Atharva Upanishads
will allow us. First however we propose to gather to
gether here the most important ethical ideas which
present themselves in the Upanishads, not so much arising
from the atman doctrine as holding a place by its side.

2. Ethics of the Upanishads

Europeans, practical and shrewd as they are, are wont
to estimate the merits of an action above all by its objective
worth, that is by the resultant profit for neighbours, for
the multitude, or for all men. He who has obtained the
greatest results by this standard passes for the greatest
man of his time ; and the widow's mite is never anything
more than a mite. But this objective worth of a good
action is too entirely dependent on the favourable or
unfavourable character of environment, on mental endow
ment, on position in life, on the accessory forces of trade
and other accidents, to be capable of serving as a standard
of moral value. Such a standard must have regard rather
to the subjective worth of an action, which consists in the
greatness of the personal sacrifice which is involved, or
more strictly speaking in the actor's consciousness of the
greatness of the sacrifice which he believes himself
to be making, and consequently in the degree of self-
denial (tapas), and self-renunciation (nydsa), which is
exhibited in the action, whether in other respects it be of
great or little or absolutely no value for others.

This distinction may save us from being betrayed into
an unjust judgement when we note, at first with some
surprise, that amongst the ancient Indians, whose con
sciousness of human solidarity, of common needs and

ETHICS 365

interests, was but slightly developed, the sense of the
objective worth of moral action (that is, the worth it
possesses for others) is very inferior to ours, while their
estimate of its subjective worth (that is, its significance for
the actor himself) was advanced to a degree from which we
may learn much. In this sense the ethical system of the
Upanishads concerns itself especially with the subjective
interpretation of moral action, and less with their external
results ; although this latter consideration is by no means
absolutely wanting, but is merely subordinated to the first.
This we propose to show in the first place by a few examples.

In Chand. 3. 17 life is regarded allegorically as a great
soma festival. In this a miniature ethical system in five
words is incidentally interwoven, when as the reward of the
sacrifice (dakshind), which is to be offered at the great sacri
ficial feast of life, are named :— (1) tapas, asceticism ; (2)
ddnam, liberality; (3) drjavam, right. dealing; (4) ahimsd,
no injury to life ; and (5) satyavac'anam, truthfulness.

In Taitt. 1. 9 twelve duties are enumerated, by the
side of each of which the " learning and teaching of the
Veda " are constantly enjoined. These are : — Eight dealing
and truthfulness ; asceticism, self-restraint, and tranquillity ;
and as duties of a householder, — Maintenance of the
sacred fire and the agnihotram, hospitality and courtesy,
duties to children wives and grandchildren.

In India also, as in other countries, men believed that
they heard the voice of the moral law-giver (Prajapati) in
the roll of the thunder, whose da ! da ! da ! is explained
in the myth of Brih. 5. 2 as ddmyata ! datta ! daya-
dhvam ! (be self-restrained, liberal, pitiful).

The beneficent results of good actions are beautifully
expressed in Mahanar. 9.1 "As the scent is wafted afar from
a tree laden with flowers, so also is wafted afar the scent

of a good deed."

1 In the Atharva Kecension 8. 2.

366 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

On the other hand, the wicked act is sternly
condemned in the verse preserved in Chfmd. 5. 10.

«_/ . •

The thief of gold, and the spirit drinker,

The murderer of a Brahman, the denier of his teacher's bed

Tl: four perish, and he who associates with them as the fifth.

The fact that only special cases are cited here instead
of universal prohibitions of theft, drunkenness, murder
and adultery, thus showing lack of generalisation, as well

the rarity of such warnings in Upanishad literature,
proves that offences of this character were not common,'
and that many an Indian chieftain might make in sub
stance his own the honourable testimony which As'vapati
Kaikeya bears to his subjects :

In my kingdom there is no thief,

No churl, no drunkard,

None who neglects the sacrifice or the sacred lore,

No adulterer or courtesan.1

This is in keeping with the gentle humane tone which
we see adopted in the Upanishads in the intercourse of
husband and wife, father and son, teacher and student,
prince and subject.

Where ethics found so little external work to do, they
could give the more undivided attention to the internal,
in the spirit of the proverb : —

In thyself know thy friend,
In thyself know thy enemy.2

The strife with this internal foe is tapas (asceticism),
the victory over it nydsa (self-renunciation), and in these
are contained the two fundamental ideas, around which
the ethical thought of the Upanishads moves. Tapas has
been already discussed in detail ; 3 and we will only add

1 Chand. 5. 11.5. 2 Bhag

THE FOUR AS'RAMAS 367

here that in Mahanar. 8 all virtues are quite correctly
explained as tapas, while according to Mahanar. 62. 11
" all these lower mortifications " l are surpassed by nydsa,
self-renunciation. More importance than to isolated ex
pressions of this character attaches to the fact that in
course of time the ancient traditional life-stages of the
brahmac'drin and grihastha had a third and a fourth
added to them, in which these two supreme virtues were
incorporated as it were, tapas as vdnaprastha, and nydsa
as sannydsin. These four life-stages of the Brahman — as
student, householder, anchorite and wandering beggar—
in which according to a subsequent view the life of every
Indian Brahman should be spent, were at a later time very
significantly named ds'ramas, i.e. "places of mortifica
tion."2 The whole life should be passed in a series of
gradually intensifying ascetic stages, through which a
man, more and more purified from all earthly attachment,
should become fitted for his " home " (astam), as the other
world is designated as early as Rigv. X. 14. 8. The entire
history of mankind does not produce much that approaches
in grandeur to this thought.

In the older Upanishads the theory of the four
as'ramas is seen in course of formation. Chanel. 8. 15
mentions only the Brahman-student and householder,
and promises to these in return for study, the begetting
of children, the practice of yoga, abstinence from doing-
injury, and sacrifice, a departure hence without return.
Chand. 2. 23. 1 names the tapas (of the anchorite) side
by side with these as a third " branch of duty." There is
still no progressive series. Rather according to this
passage the Brahman-students, in so far as they do not

1 A list of which is given like the similar series of virtues in Taitt. 1. 9,
sup. p. 365, and Mahanar. 8.

2 First, as far as our knowledge goes, in the atyds'ramin of S'vet. 6. 21,
followed by Maitr. 4. 3, etc.

368 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

elect to remain permanently in the house of the teacher,
appear to have devoted themselves partly to the house
holder's state, partly to the life in the forest. It is in
harmony with this that in Chand. 5. 10 among the dying
the anchorite in the forest and the sacrifice!' in the village
appear side by side. Chand. 2. 23. 1 contrasts all three
branches of duty with the position of the man who
" stands fast in Brahman." So too in Brih. 4. 2. 22,
those who practise (1) the study of the Veda, (2) sacrifice
and almsgiving, (3) penance and fasting, are contrasted
with the man who has learnt to know the atmaii, and in
consequence becomes a muni and pravrdjin (pilgrim).
Both have attained the knowledge of the atman, and
therefore the supreme goal. In the cognate passage Brih.
3. 5, on the contrary the Brahmana is still distinguished
from the muni as a higher grade. In Brih. 3. 8. 10 also
the knowledge of the atman as the highest aim is
differentiated both from the sacrifices and benefactions
(of the householder), and from the practices of tapas (of
the anchorite). All these passages assume only the three
stages of Brahman -student, householder and anchorite, and
contrast with them the men who know the atman. The
last were originally "exalted above the (three) as'ramas."1
This very position however of exaltation above the
as'ramas became in course of time a fourth and highest
as'rama, which was naturally assigned to the end of life,
so that studentship, and the positions of householder and
anchorite (which stood side by side) preceded it as
temporary grades in this successive order. Until a late
period however the separation between the third and
fourth as'ramas, between the vanaprastha practising tapas,
and the sannyasin who has succeeded in attaining nyasa,
was not strictly carried out. An intimation of the fourfold
number of the as'ramas is perhaps already afforded by the

1 atycts'ramin, as it is said in S'vet. 6. 21, Kaiv. 24.

THE BRAHMAC'ARIN 369

words of Mund. 2. 1. 7: — " mortification, truth, the life of
a Brahman, instruction." Otherwise the oldest passage,
which names all four as'ramas in the correct order, would
be JabalaUp. 4 : — "When the period of Brahman-student
ship is ended, a man becomes a householder; after he
has been a householder, he becomes an anchorite; after
he has been an anchorite, let him travel about on
pilgrimage."

The further development of the theory of the four
as'ramas belongs to the later period of the dharmasutras
and dharmas'astras. Here we propose merely to take a
brief survey of the substance of the teaching of the
Upanishads on this subject.

(1) The Brahmac'drin. "SVetaketu was the son of
(Uddalaka) Aruni. To him said his father, ' SVetaketu,
go forth to study the Brahman, for none of our family, my
dear son, is wont to remain unlearned, and a (mere)
hanger-on of the Brahman order.' " 1 From this remark it
seems to follow that at that time entrance upon the life of
a Brahman-student, while it was a commendable custom,
was not yet universally enjoined upon Brahmans. The
entrance also of Satyakama upon studentship appears to
be his voluntary determination.2 It was possible for a
man to receive instruction from his father, as SVetaketu,3
or at the hands of other teachers, as the same SVetaketu.4
The request to be received must follow duly (tirthena,
cp. vidhivat, Mund. 1. 1. 3), i.e. according to Brih. 6. 2. 7,
with the words, — upaimi aham bhavantam. The student
takes the fuel in his hand as a token that he is willing to
serve the teacher, and especially to maintain the sacred
fires.5 Before receiving him, the teacher makes inquiry

1 Chand. 6. 1. 1. 2 Chand. 4. 4. 1.

3 Chand. 5. 3. 1, Brih. 6. 2. 1, Kausli. 1.1.

4 Chand. 6. 1. 1, differing from the passages just quoted.

5 Kaush. 4. 19, Chand. 4. 4. 5, 5. 13. 7, 8. 7. 2, 8. 10. 3, 8. 11. 2, Mund. 1. 2.
12, Pras'na 1. 1.

24

370 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

into his birth and family,1 but yet, as this example shows,
in a very indulgent manner. Sometimes instruction is
given even without formal reception (anupaniya)* The
duration of the period of instruction is twelve years,3 or
"a series of years."4 S'vetaketu also begins to receive
instruction at the age of twelve,5 and continues his study
for twelve years. During this time he has " thoroughly
studied all the Vedas," 6 namely the verses of the Rigveda,
the formulas of the sacrifice, and the hymns of the Sama,7
apparently therefore only the samhitas. In other instances
there appears to have been at first no mention of study.
In one example Upakosala has tended the sacred fires for
twelve years, and yet the teacher can never make up his
mind to impart to him "the knowledge."8 Satyakama is
sent at first with the teacher's herds of cattle into a
distant country, where he remains for a succession of
years.9 A further act of service on the part of the
brahmac'arin consists in his going to beg for the teacher.10
On festival occasions also we find him in the train of the
teacher and awaiting his commands.11 Together with
and after these acts of service " in the time remaining
over from work for the teacher " (guroh karma-atis'eshena)
the study of the Veda is prosecuted.12 The consequence
was sometimes rather darkening of knowledge than
real enlightenment.13 We further find the students
wandering from place to place; "they hasten from all
sides" to famous teachers, like water down the hill;14
they roam as far as the land of the Madras (on the
Hyphasis) " in order to learn the sacrifice." As a rule
however they live as antevdsim in the house of the
teacher, and not a few found this manner of life so

i Chand. 4. 4. 4. 2 Chand. 5. 11. 7. 8 Chand. 4. 10. 1.

« Chand. 4. 4. 5. 8 Chand. 6. 1. 2. 6 Chand. 6. 1. 2.

7 Chand. 6. 7. 2. 8 Chand. 4. 10. 1-2. 9 Chand. 4. 4. 5.

10 Chand. 4. 3. 5. " Brih. 3. 1. 2. 12 Chand. 8. 15.

is Chand. 6. 1. 2. 14 Taitt. 1. 4. 3. 15 Brib. 3. 7. 1, 3. 3. 1.

THE GRIHASTHA 371

congenial that they " settled permanently in the teacher's
house." The others were dismissed at the close of the
period of studentship with advice 2 or admonitions :—
" After he has studied the Veda with him the teacher
admonishes his pupil, — ' Speak the truth, do your duty,
forsake not the study of the Veda ; after you have
presented the appropriate gifts to the teacher, take care
that the line of your race be not broken.' " 3 Further
admonitions follow, not to neglect health and possessions,
to honour father, mother, teacher and guest, to be blame
less in act and life, to honour superiors, to bestow alms in
the appropriate manner, and in all doubtful cases to order
himself according to the judgement of approved authorities.
(2) The Grihastha. " He who returns home from the
family of the teacher, after the prescribed study of the
Veda in the time remaining over from work for the
teacher, and pursues the private study of the Veda in (his
own) household in a pure neighbourhood (where Brahmans
are permitted to live), trains up pious (sons and pupils),
subdues all his organs in the fitman, and besides injures
no living thing except on sacred ground (at the sacrifice),
he in truth, if he maintains this manner of life all his
days, enters into the world of Brahman and docs not
return back." '• According to this passage, the householder
may remain in that state all his life long without doing
injury to his soul. According to Chfuid. 5. 10, on the
contrary, for those " who in the village observe the rites
with the words — ' Sacrifice and works of piety are our
service,' " for those therefore who continue in the house
holder's state to the end of life, the transient reward in
the moon is appointed and a return to a new earthly
existence. The most imperative duty of the householder
is to establish a family and to beget a son to continue his

1 Cliand. 2. 23. 1. 2 Brih. 6. 4.

3Taitt. 1. 11. *Chand. 8. 15.

372 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

father's works. This subject has been already con
sidered.1 Several wives are permitted, as in fact Yajiia-
valkhya himself had two.2 Further duties of the grihastha
are named, — sacrifice, study of the Veda, and almsgiving.8
How far the obligation of sacrifice suffered prejudice
through the ideas of the Upanishads has been already
discussed.4

(:>) The Vanaprastha and (4) the Sannydsin (bliikshu,
parivrdjaka). A distinction between these two periods
of life was established at first gradually. Originally the
solitary life in the forest existed as a special " kind of
vocation " (dharmaskandha) side by side with the position
of householder.5 Later it may have become usual to
retire into the solitude of the forest on the approach of old
age, after the obligations of the householder had been
satisfied. Yajfiavalkhya is an example, when he addresses
his wife Maitreyi : — " I will now abandon this state (of
householder), and will therefore make a division between
thce and Katyayani."6 With Yajfiavalkhya this step
means the putting into practice of his teaching in Brih.
3. 5. 1 : — " In truth, after that Brahmans have gained
the knowledge of this soul, they abstain from desire for
children and desire for possessions and desire for the world,
and wander about as beggars." Here the third and the
fourth states are not yet distinguished. The case is
otherwise with the king Brihadratha, who surrenders his
kingdom, journeys into the forest, and gives himself up to
the most painful mortifications, gazing fixedly at the sun
and standing with arms crossed, and yet is obliged to
confess : — " I am not acquainted with the atman."7 Here
the anchorite, who devotes himself to ascetic practices

1 snip. p. 293 ff. 2 Brih. 2. 4, 4. 5.

* Chsiiul. 2. 23. 1, 8. 5. 1-2, Biih. 4. 4. 22, 3. 8. 10.

4 sup. p. 61-65. 5 Ch&nd. 2. 23. 1, 5. 10. 1-3.

6 Brih. 2. 4. 1 (4. 5. 1-2). 7 Maitr. 1. 2.

VANAPRASTIIA AND SANNYASIN 373

with meditation,1 has not yet attained the highest goal ;
if anyone without knowing the atman " practises asceticism
for a full thousand years, to him it brings only finite
(reward)."1 Asceticism leads only to the Pitriyana,8 and
the case is different only with those who can say : — " Faith
is our asceticism." 4 Penance and fasting are only the
means by which Brahmans " seek to know " the atman.5
According to some, tapas is indispensable as a means to
the knowledge of the atman ; 6 according to others, it is
superfluous as far as any fruits of the system are concerned.7
For as long as the goal was future the hope might be
cherished of approaching near to it by severing by means
of asceticism the tie that binds to this life. If however
emancipation is the discovery of oneself as the atman, and
therefore something that only needs to be recognised as
already existing, not to be brought about as though it were
future, the asceticism of the vanaprastha becomes as super
fluous as the grihastha's sacrifice and study of the Veda.8
He who knows the atman is atyds'ramin, " exalted above
the (three) as'ramas." 9 He has attained that which the
ascetic only strives after, complete release from his
individuality and from all that pertains to it, as family,
possessions and the world.10 He is called sannydsin,
because he "casts off everything from himself" (sam-ni-
as), because he "wanders around" homeless (parivrdj,
parivrdjaka), because without possessions he lives only as
a "beggar" (bhikshu).

3. The Sannydsa

The Sannydsa, which is originally only the rejection
of the entire Brahmanical mode of life with its three

1 Chand. 2. 23. 1. 2 Brill. 3. 8. 10. 3 Brili. G. 2. 1C.

* Chand. 5. 10. 1. 6 vividishanti, Brih. 4. 4. 22.

6 Maitr. 4. 3, na atapaskasya dtmajndne 'dhiyamah.

7 Jabala Up. 4. 8 Brih. 3. 5, 4. 4. 21. 9 S'vet. 6. 21.
10 Brih. 3. 5, 4. 4. 22.

374 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

fis'ramas, assumed in course of time the position of a
fourth and highest as'rama, which as a rule, though not
necessarily, would first be entered upon towards the close
of life after passing through the stages of brahmac'arin,
grihastha and vanaprastha. It thus, however, gained a
further meaning. If it was originally an apparent conse
quence of the knowledge of the atman, it became now a
final and most certain means by which it was hoped to
attain that knowledge. The Sannyasa accordingly is
represented as such a means to the knowledge of the
atman and to emancipation in a series of later Upanishads
(the most important are Brahma, Sannyasa, Aruneya,
Kanthas'ruti,Paramahamsa9 Jdbdla, As'rama) ; and from
these we propose to endeavour to sketch a picture of this
most characteristic feature of Indian religious life. Ke-
membering however the slight regard which the Sann-
yfisins, following the example of Yajnavalkhya,1 entertain
for the Vedic tradition, and the lack of other authority, it
is intelligible that the rules and formulas out of which the
Sannyasa Upanishads have been compiled arc in details
full of contradictions.

( 1 ) Preliminary conditions of the Sannyasa. A clear
distinction between these four fis'ramas is found only in Jab.
4 and As'r. 1-4. The latter Upanishad distinguishes the
third and fourth stages by the fact that all four varieties
of the vanaprastha continue to observe the sacrifice in
the forest, while the four varieties of the sannyasin are
absolved from it. Jab. 4 enjoins entrance into the
sannyasa only after passing through the stages of
brahmac'arin, grihastha and vanaprastha, but permits the
transition direct from any stage. Similarly in Kanth. 1
the injunction is given to renounce the world " in the
right order," while in Kanth. 2 a deviation from it is
allowed. In Sanny. 1 renunciation is defined as an

ili. 3. 5, 4. 4. 21.

THE SANNYASA 375

" advance beyond the stages of life " (therefore still not a
fourth stage). According to the descriptions of Sauny. 2
and Kanth. 4 the transition is direct from the position of
householder to renunciation ; and the reason for this may
be either that grihastha and vanaprastha are still placed
side by side as preliminary stages of renunciation,1 or
that vanaprastha and sannyasin are not yet definitely
separated.2

(2) Departure from life. The Sannyasa demands a sur
render of all possessions, a resigning the seven upper and
seven lower worlds, which on this occasion are enumerated,3
an abandonment of sons, brothers, relatives,4 of father, son
and wife,5 of teachers and relatives,6 of children, friends,
wife and relatives,7 a leaving behind of family.8 In one
passage only 9 is permission given for him who renounces
the world to be accompanied by his wife. The Sannyasa
is accordingly a complete separation from life ; and there
fore in this instance also, as at death, a purification
(sa/rkskdra) by sacred text and ceremonies has to be
observed.10 In particular the candidate for renunciation
has still to offer a sacrifice for the last time, in the de
scription of which the texts greatly differ. In Sanny. 1
an offering is prescribed to the deceased and a sacrifice to
Brahman (brdhmeshti) ; henceforth the man who has re
nounced the world lives without offerings to the deceased
and sacrifices.11 Kanth. 4 requires that in the first place
for twelve successive days an agnihotram with milk shall
be proffered, during which time the sacrificer himself
shall live only on milk ; then after selecting once again
as before all the hitherto recognised sacrificial priests,
he is to offer a vais'vdnara sacrifice (i.e. to Agni Vais'va-

1 As in Chand. 2. 23. 1. 2 As in AST. 3-4, and later.

3 Ar. 1. 44r-L 5Ar. 5. 6 Kanth. 4.

7 Par. 1. 8 Ar. 2. 9 Sanny. 2. 7. 10 Sanny. 1.

11 Par. 4. 12 Kanth. 1.

12

376 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

uara, probably to be understood as in Chand. 5. 19-24),1
accompanied by a mouse to Prajapati (perhaps as ransom
from the duty of begetting), and a cake of three layers
to Vishnu.2 In Jab. 4, on the contrary, the sacrifice to
Prajapati is disapproved of, and only that to Agni as
Pi-ana is demanded (probably therefore the vais'vdnara,
sacrifice), but subsequently direction is given for a
Traidhdtavtya offering to the three elements, sattvam,
rajas and tamas. Thus too in Jab. 4, in harmony with
the separation of all four stages here carried out, he who
enters upon the Sannyasa is thought of as a vanaprastha ;
and this is the ground of the immediately following
prescription, that the priests shall cause the fire to be
brought from the village ; if no fire is to be had, the
offering shall be made in water, " for water is all the
deities." This offering is made with the words, " Om !
I offer to all the deities, svdhd" where the word om im
plies all three Vedas ; 4 and thereupon the sacrificer shall
taste the fat and savoury meats of the sacrifice. Accord
ing to Kanth. 1 he is to stretch his limbs symbolically
over the sacrificial utensils, thereby signifying his renun
ciation of them. Kanth. 4 commands him to throw his
wooden vessels into the fire, the earthen into water, and to
give the metal ones to his teacher ; elsewhere he is to throw
the broken wood into the fire.5 Thereby he symbolically
takes the fire, which henceforth he will no longer maintain,
into himself,6 or into his body.7 The sacrificial fire he
takes up into the fire of his belly,8 the Gayatri 9 into the
fire of his speech.10 It is probably this taking up of the
sacrificial fire into his own body which is symbolically
intended when he who has renounced the world, addressing

1 Kanth. 1 and 4. 2 Kanth. 4. 3 cp. sup. p. 190 f. 4 Jab. 4.

6 Sanny. 1, Kanth. 4. 6 Sanny. 1. 7 Sanny. 2. 4.

8 In which for the future he offers the priina-agnihotram, sup. p. 124f.

9 i.e. the Veda, Cliund. 3. 12. 1. '« AT. 2.

THE SANNYlSA 377

the fire, has to consume a handful of ashes from the
embers,1 or to smell the fire.2 Besides this ceremony,
mention is made of a special initiation (dikshd),3 which
must be completed by means of the hymn Atharvav. 1 1 .
8 : — " When Manyu chose himself a wife from out of the
sankalpa," etc. Since this hymn expresses itself in
depreciatory style of the origin of the body,4 this appli
cation of it perhaps meant that a man thereby declared
himself free from his own body. After thus separating
himself from sacrificial duties, a highly significant act
followed, upon which accordingly stress is laid by all the
texts, namely the laying aside of the sacred, thread, the
token that he belongs to the Brahmanical class,5 and the
lock of hair which indicates his family descent.6 Hence
forth meditation alone is to serve as the sacrificial cord,7
and knowledge as the lock of hair,8 the timeless atman is
to be both sacred thread and lock of hair for him who lias
renounced the world.9 According to Kanth. 4 the sacred
thread, according to Jab. 6 this and the lock of hair, are
offered in water with the words " svdhd to the earth " ;
according to Ar. 2 the sacred thread and lock of hair
are to be buried in the earth or sunk in water. The later
systematising of AST. 4, which distinguishes four grades of
Sannyasins, insists on the retention of the lock of hair and
the sacred thread by the Balmdaka, the lock of hair without
thread by the Hariisa, and allows only the Paramahamsa
as the highest grade to dispense with lock of hair and
sacred thread, or even to shave the head. On this point
also difference of opinion exists. Kanth. 2, 3, 4 demands
removal of the hair of the head, Jab. 5 complete baldness,

1 Kanth. 4. 2 Jab. 4. 3 Sanny. 3, Kaiitli. 5.

4 cp. the translation, Allgemeine Einlcitung, pp. 270-277.
6 Kanth. 2, 3, 5, Ar. 1, 3, 5, Brahma 3.

6 8'ikhd, Kanth. 2, 3, Ar. 1, Brahma 3, Par. 1.

7 Kanth. 2, Brahma 3, Par. 2. 8 Kanth. 2, Brahma 3.
'*> Par. 2.

378 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

Kanth. 5 only a lesser tonsure, Sanny. 3 and Kanth. 5 re
moval of the hair on the privy parts and armpits. Last of
all, the separation from the son takes place, who accompanies
his father for a certain distance, after which with festive
greetings both turn right round and go their way without
looking back ; and the son is not permitted to shed tears.1
(3) Dress and Equipment. On these also great
differences of opinion exist. The robe should according
to Sanny. 3, Kanth. 5 be dark red, according to Jab. 5
colourless, according to Kanth. 2 torn or made of bark,
according to Sanny. 4 patched. As'r. 4 permits the
Bahudaka to wear a loin-cloth and dark red robe, the
Paramahamsa only rags and a loin-cloth. Par. 4 requires
of the latter that space be his clothing, Jab. 6 that he
should live " naked as he was born." Together with the
coat, girdle and thread, the staves also of palas'a, bilva or
as'vattha wood, which serve to distinguish the castes, must
l)e laid aside.2 In their place the triple staff, composed of
three staves twisted together (tridandam, probably as a
token of the reconciliation of caste differences), makes its
appearance,3 but even this is sometimes forbidden.4 We
have instead the single staff (token of complete reconcilia
tion),5 or the staff of bamboo.6 Even this however is pro
hibited 7 with the remark that he who carries knowledge
alone as his staff is rightly named a man with a single staff.
Asr. 4 introduces system again here by permitting the triple
staff to the Bahudaka, to the Hamsa the single staff, and
allows no staff to the Paramahamsa. Similarly in Sanny.
3 a sieve, in Kanth. 5 a ragged cloth is allowed for the
straining of liquid, to prevent the destruction of any living
thing ; on the contrary, in Jab. 6 and the verses of Kanth.
5 even cloth -strainers are forbidden. A covering is per
mitted by Par. 1, but Par. 2 prohibits this for the highest

1 Kanth. 2 and 3. 2 Ar. 5. 3 Sanny. 4.

< Kanth. 5, Jfib. G, Ar. 2. • Par. 1. 6 Ar. 3. 7 Par. 3.

THE S ANN Y AS A 379

grade. A summary in verse is given of the objects which
a less strict observance allows to the Sannyasin :—

Pot, drinking-cup and flask,
The three supports, a pair of shoes,
A patched robe giving protection
In heat and cold, a loin-cloth,
Bathing drawers and straining cloth,
Triple staff and coverlet.1

These same objects, the very verse being repeated, are else
where forbidden to the Sannyasin,2 and with this the enum
eration in the prose of Jab. 6 agrees. Another passage 3
allows them to the Bahudaka, and forbids them only to the
Paramahamsa. The direction of Ar. 5, that lie who has
renounced the world shall bear the syllable om on his
limbs, is unique.

(4) food. The Sannyasin must live by begging,4 only
bread given in charity and broken fruits are to be his
food,5 or water, air and fruits.6 Food should be asked of
all four castes,7 the distinctions of which have no longer
any existence for the Sannyasin. AST. 4 distinguishes here
also four grades ; the Kutic'aras are to beg in the houses
of their children, the Bahudakas of well-to-do Brahman
families, and the Paramahamsas alone of all four castes.
In begging the Sannyasin is to employ a clay or wooden
vessel, or a gourd,8 but elsewhere the rule is laid down that
his belly should form his vessel,9 his hand,10 or his belly
or hand.11 He who has renounced the world " shall eat
the bread of charity, but give no alms" (bhikshds'i na
dadydt, for which might be read with a very slight change
bhikshds'i 'shad adydt, " living on the bread of charity he
shall eat little ").12 This would be in harmony with other
passages, according to which he who has renounced the

1 Sanny. 4. 2 Kanth. 5. 8 AST. 4.

4 Kanth. 5. 6 Sanny. 4, 5. ° Sanny. 2, 4.

7 Kanth. 2. 8 Ar. 4.' 9 Kanth 5, JaK R.

10 Kanth. 2. n Ar. 5. 12 Kanth. 5.

38o THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

world should use his food only as medicine,1 should avoid
eating sufficient to put on fat, but should remain thin.2
Nevertheless, should he feel weak, he should not pursue
these and other abstinences so far as to give rise to dis
order:3 if he is ill, he should practise self-mortification
only in the spirit or by means of words.4 Elsewhere it

is said, extending the theory of the Pranagnihotra : 6

'That which he eats in the evening is his evening
sacrifice, in the morning his morning sacrifice, at the
new month his new moon sacrifice, that at the full moon
his full moon sacrifice, and when he cuts (afresh) in the
spring the hair of his head, his beard, the hair of his body,
and his nails, that is his agnishtoma (a kind of Soma
sacrifice ").6

(5) Place of abode. The essential characteristics of
the man who has renounced the world are already implied
in the three chief names which he bears. As sannydsin
he must " cast everything from him/' as bhikshu live only
as a " beggar," and as parivrdj, parivrdjaka must wander
about homeless as a " pilgrim (vagrant)." He is no longer
tied to any locality. He has no further interest in dying
iu Avimuktam (a place at Benares that ensures immediate
salvation for those who die there), for he bears always with
him the Varand and the Asi (two streams, between which
Benares lies, and from which it derives its name Vdrdnasi),
as the arches (varana) of his eyebrows and his nostrils
(tidsd).7 As a rule he is to make his home by the
side of water,8 on sand-banks in a river or before the
doors of a temple,9 or to sit or lie on the bare earth.10
According to Jab. 6, he should "remain homeless in a
deserted house, or a temple of the gods, on a heap of grass,
or an antheap, or among the roots of a tree, in a potter's

1 Kanth. 2, Ar. 3. -' Kaiith. 2. » Kanth. 2. * ,TAb. 5.

sup. p. 124 f. c Kanth. 4. * Jal,. 1-2. « Kantli. 2.

9 Saiiny. 4, Kanth. 6. 10 ^r. 4.

THE SANNYlSA 381

shed, by a sacrificial fire, on an island in a river, in a
cave in the mountains, a glen, or a hollow tree, by a water
fall, or on the bare earth." He may tarry only one night
in a village, only five nights in a town.1 An exception is
allowed in the rainy season.2 During the four months of
rain he may remain in a village or a town ; 3 in the re
maining eight he is to wander about either alone or in the
company of another.4

(6) Occupation. The Sannyasin, as we have seen, no
longer offers sacrifices, the place of these being taken by
the nourishing of his own body,5 and similarly he continues
to live without study of the Veda,6 without the Vedic
texts ; 7 but he is to " recite the Aranyakam and the
Upanishads from all theVedas."1 All the texts require
of him " bathing, meditation, and purification by sacred
waters," 9 washings at intervals of three days,10 washings
and rinsing of the mouth " with water as the vessel " (i.e.
without a vessel).11 In particular there is also enjoined
upon him silence,12 meditation,13 and the practice of yoga.u
His chief virtues are described as " chastity, abstinence
from doing injury, poverty and truthfulness." : He says :
— " All living creatures are at peace with me, for by me
everything has been created." 16 He must not accept gold,
or touch it, not even once look at it.17 He has abandoned
all desire, knowledge is his staff, therefore is he rightly
named " with a single staff"; he however who takes the
wooden staff, because it gives him freedom " to eat of any
thing," is a false sannyasin, and goes to hell.18 He on the

1 Kanth. 2 ; according to AST. 4, this rule first becomes binding at the
Haiiisa stage.

2 Kanth. 5.

3 Kanth. 2. ; a gloss makes only two of them, cp. Deussen, Upan.,
p. 699.

4Ar. 4. 6 Kanth. 4. c Par.l, Ar. 1. 7 Ar. 2.

8 Ar. 2. 9 Sanny. 4, Kanth. 5. 10 Ar. 2. ll Kanth. 2.

12 Kanth. 3. 13 Ar. 2. 14 Sanny. 4. 15 Ar. 3.

16 Ar. 3. ir Par. 4. 18 Par. 3.

382 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

contrary who lias truly renounced the world " should bid
farewell to lust, anger, desire, infatuation, deceit, pride, envy,
self-will, presumption and falsehood."1 He is "free from
the six surges (of sarhsara :— hunger, thirst, vexation, error,
old age and death), and leaves behind him censure, pride,
jealousy, deceit, haughtiness, longing, hatred, pleasure,
pain, desire, anger, greed, error, joy, disappointment, self-
will and everything of the kind ; and because his own
body is regarded by him merely as a carcase he turns
away for ever from this decaying body, which is the cause
of doubt, perversity and error, and directs his mind stead
fastly to that (Brahman), makes his home in him, and
knows of him, who is tranquil, immutable, — ' I am that
timeless one, consisting wholly of bliss and knowledge, it is
I myself, he is my highest state, my lock of hair, my sacred
thread.' " He is not elated by praise, does not curse when
he is reviled.3 " He does not attract and he does not cast
off ; for him there are no longer Vedic texts, or meditation,
or worship, or visible and invisible, or joined and disjoined,
or I and thou and the world, . . . steadfast in pain, in
pleasure without desire, in longing self-restrained, in all
tilings dependent neither on beauty nor ugliness, free from
hatred and free from joy. The motions of every impulse
have been stilled, he abides only in knowledge, firmly
founded in the atman." 4 "Then he may enter upoirtfre"
great journey, by abstaining from nourishment, throwing ,
himself into the water or the fire, or choosing a hero's death ;
or he may betake himself to a hermitage of the aged."6

4. The Yoga

Emancipation consists in the consciousness of unity
with the atman as first principle of all things. It is
essentially on the one hand an annihilation of all desire,

1 Ar. 4. 2 Par. 2. 3 Kanth. 5.

4 Par. 4. * Kajith. 4, Jab. 5.

THE YOGA 383

and on the other an annihilation of the illusion of a
manifold universe. The first, as we saw, is the aim of the
sannydsa ; to effect the latter by preparatory artificial
means is the function of the yoga. It is therefore, apart
from excrescences and exaggerations, a perfectly intelligible
consequence of the doctrine of the Upanishads. For if
the highest end is contained in the knowledge of self-
identity with the atman, why should we not attempt
to reach it by purposely dissolving the ties that bind
to the illusory world of phenomena, and by self-
concentration ? That the external world derives little or
no advantage from the practices of the Yoga does not
enter into consideration for a truer ethical judgement.1
The only real consideration that may be urged against the
practices of yoga, which have always been highly esteemed
in India, and are to this day widely spread (precisely as
they may be urged against the self-imposed acts of
penance among the Pietists of the West), consists in this,
that they aim at bringing about in an artificial way that
which is only thoroughly genuine when it originates
naturally and without the assistance of our will. Tout ce
qui n'est naturel est imparfait, as Napoleon would have
said. In other respects the phenomena of yoga are akin
not only, as has often been asserted, to certain diseased
conditions that exist also among ourselves (hypnotism,
catalepsy, etc., upon which we do not enter since the
material to hand in the Upanishads does not suggest it),
but also with the entirely healthy and joyous phenomenon
of aesthetic contemplation. The more than earthly joy
which we experience at the sight of the beautiful in nature
or in art depends upon a forgetfulness of one's own
individuality, and a union of subject and object, similar
to that which the yoga endeavours to secure by artificial
means. These means we propose now to consider.

1 sup. p. 364.

384 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISIIADS

In post-Vcdic times the practice of yoga was developed
into a formal system with its own text-book (the sutras of
Patanjali). The rise of this system, as its first beginnings
in Kath. 3 and 6, S'vet. 2 and Maitr. 6 show, belongs to
the time when the original idealism of the Upanishad
teaching began already to harden into the realistic
philosophy of the Sarikhya. On this foundation, which
was far from being adapted to its original conception, the
later yoga system was raised. This system therefore lays
the chief stress on external means (sddhana), and the
external results thereby attained (vibhhti) ; and regards
the union with the only real atman, which was the
original aim of the yoga, as a separation (kaivalyam) of
the purusha from the prakriti, dismissing entirely into
the background that which was properly its chief concern,
the meditation on the atman by means of the syllable om.
Only the theism was preserved over from the later
Upanishads, in contrast to the chosen basis of the Sarikhya;
and thus external support was secured for the system,
although no real life could ever be fostered on this un
congenial ground.1 A remarkable testimony to this
theistic modification of the Sankhya system in the service
of the doctrine of the yoga is given by the C ulika Upani
shad, which, starting from the twenty-five principles of the
Sankhya, ranks the Is'vara with them on purely external
grounds " as the twenty-sixth" (or probably by the inser
tion of atman as twenty-seventh),2 and recognises its
difference from the purushas only in the freedom with
which it drinks from the breasts " of its foster-mother
Maya " :-

The children indeed are numberless,
Th.it drink there of the world of sense,
Yet one alone drinks of it as God,
Freely following his own will.3

1 sup. p. 238 f. 2 C'Ol. 14. » C'Al. 6.

THE YOGA 385

In the sequel we limit ourselves to the yoga, as far as
we are able to follow it up through the Upanishads, and
adopt from the post-Vedic system merely as the frame
work of our picture the " eight members" (anga), into
which the yoga is divided on the practical side, and of
which the five last (with tarka as a sixth) are already
enumerated in two passages of the Upanishads, though
not yet in the regular order.1 The later eight any as
are as follows: — (1) yama, discipline (consisting in
abstinence from doing injury, truthfulness, honesty,
chastity, poverty); (2) niyama, self-restraint (purity,
contentment, asceticism, study, devotion); (3) dsanam,
sitting (in the right place and in the correct bodily
attitude); (4) prdndydma, regulation of the breath;

(5) pratydhdra, suppression (of the organs of sense);

(6) dhdrand, concentration (of the attention) ; (7)
dhydnam, meditation ; (8) samddhi, absorption (complete
union with the object of meditation).

These requirements we see already presented separately
in the older Upanishads. Thus we have pratydhdra in
the direction of Chand. 8. 15, "to bring all his organs to
rest in the atman," and prdndydma, when Brih. 1. 5. 23
enjoins as the "sole vow" to inhale and exhale. Here
and in other passages2 the regulated breath takes the
place of the sacrifice, and seems thenceforward to have
been adopted into the yoga as a symbolic act. The word
yoga in a technical sense first occurs, exclusive of Taitt.
2. 4, in Kath. 2. 12 (adhydtma-yoga], 6. 11, 18, S'vet.
2. 11, 6. 13, Maitr. 6. 18, etc. The true explanation of it
as "harnessing, arranging" is evident from the expression
dtmdnam yunjita occurring in Mahanar. 63. 21 and Maitr.
6. 3 ; while in Maitr. 6. 25 the yoga seems to have been
conceived as a " union " (between prana and the syllable
om). The Upanishads quoted contain also the earliest

1 Maitr. 6. 18, Amritab. 6. 2 sup. p. 124.

25

386 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

theory of the yoga practice. Kath. 3. 13, recalling
Sankhyan ideas, requires that speech and manas " shall
be restrained" (yac'c'het) in the buddhi, the buddlii in
the man/in which is still distinguished from it, and the
latter again in the avyaktam. Kath. 6. 10-11 enjoins a
fettering (dhdrand) of the organs (senses, manas, buddhi),
whereby the purusha thus separated from them all may be
drawn forth from the body, as the stalk from the bulrush.1
S'vet. 2. 8-15 discusses already the choice of place,2 the
manner of sitting,8 the regulation of the breath,4 the
control of the senses and manas in the heart,5 and
mentions the phenomena that accompany and follow
yoga.6 To this is attached the recommendation of the
syllable om, which occurs as a symbol of Brahman as
early as Chand. 1. 1, Taitt. 1. 8, as a vehicle (dlambanam)
of meditation,7 as fuel,8 as bow,9 or as arrow,10 in order to
pierce the darkness, and to hit the mark in Brahman.
The three morae (a, u, m), of which the syllable om consists,
are mentioned first in Pras'na 5, Maitr. 6. 3, while the
third and a half mora first occurs as the " moraless " part
of the word in Mand. 12, as the " head of the syllable om "
in Maitr. G. 23. To these anticipations are attached
descriptions of the practice of yoga, which are found in
Maitr. 6. 18-30 and in the Yoga Upanishads of the
Atharva-Veda. The most important are, — Brahmavidya,
Kshurika, C'lilika ; Nadabindu, Brahmabindu, Amritabindu,
Dhyanabindu, Tejobindu ; Yogas'ikha, Yogatattva, and
Hamsa ; upon these we base our description, following
the later order of the eight members (yama, niyama,
dsanam, prdndydma, pratydltdra, dhdrand, dhydnam,
samddhi),

1 6. 17. 8 2. 10. 8 2. 8. « 2. 9.

•2.8,9. " 2. 11-13. ' Kath. 2. 17.

8 S'vet. 1. 14, Bliyanab. 20. 9 Mimd. 2. 2. 4, Dhyunab. 19.
10 Maitr. 6. 24.

THE YOGA 387

(1) Yama, restraint, and (2) niyama, self-restraint.
These two divisions do not yet occur in the enumerations
of Maitr. 6. 18 and Amritab. 6, possibly because they are
tacitly assumed to be universal duties (objective and
subjective). The remark of Yogat. 15 might be quoted
here with many others to prove that the yogin affords
protection to all beings, since he knows them to be his
own self ; and admonitions like the following : —

From fear, from anger, from indolence,
From excessive wakefulness, excessive sleep,
From too much food, and from starvation
The yogin should constantly protect us.1

(3) Asanam, sitting. Stress is laid in the first place on
the choice of the right locality. As early as S'vet. 2. 10
it is prescribed for the practice of yoga :—

Let the place be pure, and free also from boulders and sand,

Free from fire, smoke, and pools of water,

Here where nothing distracts the mind or offends the eye,

In a hollow protected from the wind a man should compose himself.

Elsewhere " a pure region," 2 a " level surface of the ground,
pleasant and free from faults," 3 are required. According
to Yogat. 15 yoga should be practised "in a lawful place,
quiet, remote, and free from distractions." Kshur. 2, 21
ordains that " a noiseless place " should be chosen. In
regard to the mode of sitting, the Upanishads are still free
from the extravagant definitions of the later Yoga, which
betray external influence. No less than eighty-four
modes of sitting are there distinguished. S'vet. 2. 8
prescribes only a triple holding erect (of breast, neck and
head), and symmetry of sitting posture. Amritab. 18
lays stress upon facing the north (the region of the way
of the gods), and enjoins only three modes of sitting,
viz. — the lotus seat (padmdsanam, i.e. sitting with the

1 Amritab. 27. 2 Maitr. 6. 30. 3 Amritab 17.

388 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

legs bent underneath, the usual method of sitting in
India), the cruciform seat (svastikam), and the auspicious
seat (bhadrdsanam) ; the two last differ only slightly
from the first. Yogas'. 2 directs the choice of the lotus
posture " or otherwise as seems good to him," with
attention concentrated on the tip of the nose, hands and
feet closely joined. Amritab. 22 commands the yogin to
sit firm and motionless, "from every side above and below
his gaze turned fixedly on himself." Kshur. 2 lays stress
only on " the right mode of sitting." Kshur. 4 speaks of
a correct inclination of the breast, hips, face and neck
towards the heart. A special kind of bodily posture is
described in the concluding verse of Sanny. 4. Asanam,
like yama and niyama, is not yet reckoned in the Upani-
shads as an cinr/a of the yoga, and the latter has therefore
only six divisions (shadango yoga uc'yate),1 not eight as
later on. They are enumerated in Maitr. 6. 18, viz. —
prdndydma, pratyaliara, dhydnam, dhdrand, tarka,
samddhi. The same list, but with the transfer of
prdndydma to the third place, recurs in Amritab. 6.
It is strange that both lists place dhdrand not before,
but after dhydnam ; this may be due to some other
conception of these ideas than that which later became
usual. Both lists name tarka, reflection, in the fifth
place, and this in Amritab. 16 is defined as "meditation,
which is not contrary to the teaching," and explained by
the commentator in one place 2 as control of the dhydnam,
but elsewhere as the knowledge free from doubt which
proceeds from the dhydnam.

(4) Prdndydma, regulation of the breath. This is dis
tinguished into rec'aka, ptiraka, Jcumbhaka* In harmony

1 Amritab. 6 and Maitr. 6. 18.

2 On Maitr. 6. 18.

3 They are mentioned also in the Yoga sutras 2. 50, a fact which Garbe
contests, since only other names are chosen, after a manner that the sfltras
afreet, aa vdhya-abhyantarn-stambha-vritti.

THE YOGA 389

with the chief passage,1 (1) rec'aka is exspiration, which
ought to be prolonged ; 2 (2) ptiraka is inspiration,
described in Yogat. 12, effected either through one
nostril, the other being closed with the finger,3 or through
the mouth pointed like the stalk of a lotus ; 4 (3)
kumbhaka, retention of the breath in the lungs,5 whence
apparently it pervades all the limbs of the body by means
of meditation.6 Rec'aka should be accompanied with the
thought of S'iva, puraka with that of Vishnu, kumbhaka
with that of Brahman.7 Prdndydma effects the destruc
tion of all sins.8

(5) Pratydlidra, suppression of the organs of sense, is
mentioned as early as Chand. 8. 15. As the tortoise
draws in its limbs,9 so are all the senses withdrawn into
the man together with the active manas, for these are
only emanations of the atman,10 are checked,11 are shut up
in the heart,12 and are reduced thereby to tranquillity.13
The objects of sense in him are thus brought to rest,14 and
the senses are restrained as in sleep.15

(6) Dhdrand, concentration, affects the maims, which
as the organ of the will hinders emancipation, unless it
is checked, locked up in the heart, reduced to ineffective
ness, and so deliverance from the manas is attained.16
The manas should therefore be subjected to external
restraint,17 curbed in every direction,18 immersed in the
self,19 until it is entirely dissolved therein.20 The im
prisonment of the manas in the heart is taught also in
Kshur. 3 ; in other respects also this Upanishad derives
its name from the fact that it teaches a kshurikd

1 Amritab. 10 f. 2 Kshur. 5. 3 Aniritab. 19.
4 Amritab. 13, Dhyanab. 11. 5 Amritab. 12, Yogat, 13.

6 Kshur. 4, 6 f . 7 Dhyanab. 11-13. 8 Amritab. 7-8.

9 Kshur. 3, Yogat. 12. 10 Amritab. 5. n Kath. 3. 13.

12 S'vet. 2. 8. 13 Kath. 6. 10. 14 Maitr. 6. 19.

15 Maitr. 6. 25. 16 Brahmab. 1-5, Maitr. 6. 34.

17 Maitr. 6. 19 ; a higher kind of dhdrand is described in what follows, 6. 20.

18 Yogas . 3. 19 Amritab. 15. 20 Nadab. 18.

390 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

dhdrand, a concentration of the attention of the manas
on the several limbs and veins of the body, whereby they
are in turn cut off from it by the knife of manas, and thus
freedom from desire is attained.

(7) Dhydnam, meditation. Although even svddhydya
is found among the niyamas,1 yet as a rule the study of
the Veda is very lightly esteemed by the yogin. He is
not proud of brahmanical descent, or of knowledge of
the Scriptures,2 he has in the search for true knowledge
thoroughly examined the books, and found in them only
chuff instead of wheat.3 Therefore he throws the books
away, as though they burned him.4 The sole wisdom is
that which teaches how to reduce the mauas to impotence
in the heart, "the other is learned trash."1 The place
of knowledge of the Veda is taken by meditation on that
word, which " all the Vedas proclaim to us," 6 thepranava,
i.e. the sacred syllable om. It is the best support,7 the
bow off which the soul as the arrow flies to Brahman,8
the arrow which is shot from the body as bow in order to
pierce the darkness,9 the upper fuel which with the body
as the lower fuel is kindled by the fire of the vision of
God,10 the net with which the fish of prana is drawn out,
and sacrificed in the fire of the atman,11 the ship on which
a man voyages over the ether of the heart,12 the chariot
which bears him to the world of Brahman.13 Its three
morae a u m are fire, sun and wind,14 they are the essence
of all things.15 He who meditates on them by one mora
gains the world of men, by two the pitriyana, by three
the devayana.16 Besides the three morae the word has a
fourth " moraless " part,17 which forms the crown of the

1 sup. p. 385. 2 Tejob. 13. 3 Bralnnab. 18.

4 Ainritab. 1. * Brahmab. 5. 6 Rath. 2. 15.

7 Kath. 2. 17. 8 Mund. 2. 2. 4. 9 Maitr. 6. 24.

10 S'vet. 1. 14. " Maitr. 6. 26. 12 Maitr. 6. 28.

13 Amritab. 2. 14 Maitr. 6. 3. 15 Maitr. 6. 5.

" Pras-na 5. 17 Maud. 12.

THE YOGA 391

syllable om,1 and which later on is described as the third
and a half mora.2 It is this half mora which leads to
the supreme goal ; 3 it is represented by the point (bindu)
of the anusvara, the point of strength, which bears the
deepest meaning,4 and sounds in the echo (ndda), the
toneless m-syllablc (asvara makdra),5 which in one
passage is described as completely silent, without noise,
tone, consonant or vowel,6 but in another sounds like the
echo of a tin vessel when struck, or of a bell,7 or like the
prolonged dripping of oil, or the after tones of the notes
of a bell,8 or again may be produced in ten different
ways, of which the last is recommended, sounding like a
peal of thunder.9 Compare also on the mention of the
echo Atharvasikha 1. With increasing exaggeration
-there are ascribed to the syllable om five morae,10 three
morae and three echoes,11 three morae with a half mora
anusvara and an echo,12 three morae and four half morae,13
and finally in a different sense twelve component parts.14
The Upanishads are never weary of offering interpreta
tions of the three or three and a half morae in allegorical
style as Agni, Vayu, the Sun, and Varuna,15 as the three
worlds, three Vedas, three fires, three gods, three daily
periods, three measures, or three gunas ; 16 so that medita
tion on the half mora (the point or the echo) was valued
far above all these things.

Essentially it was the unknowableness of the first
principle of the universe, the Brahman, thus early
entering into consciousness, and the impossibility of

1 Maitr. 6. 23. 2 Nadab. 1, Dhyanab. 17, Yogat. 7, etc.

3 Yogat. 7. 4 Tejob. 1. 5 Amritab. 4.

6 Amritab. 24. 7 Brahmavidva 13. 8 Dhyanab. 18.

9 Hamsa 4. 10 Amritab. 30. n Pranou Up., Upan., p. 863.

12 Ramott. 2. 13 Ramott. 5.

i* Nadab. 8-11, Kshur. 3, Amritab. 23, Nrisimhott. 2 (cp. Deussen, Upan.,
p. 782 f.).

is Nadab. 6-7.

16 Brahinavidya 4-7, Yogat. 6-7, Atharvasdras 5, Atharvas'ikha 1, etc.

392 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

expressing it by word, conception or illustration (neti,
neti), which had compelled the choice of something so
entirely meaningless as the syllable om ; but it °was
precisely on that account especially fitted to be the
symbol of Brahman. The same consideration however
led to a further advance beyond even the syllable, first
to the half mora, and then even beyond this :

Higher than the original syllable
Is the point, the echo higher than this ;
The syllable vanishes with the sound,
The highest state is silent.1

This highest state, which is not expressed by any word
or combination of words,2 cannot be meditated on by
means of om, but only in absolute silence. By the syllable
om a man may only " enter upon " the yoga.3 It is the
chariot, which is abandoned where the highway ends
and the footpath begins.4 Om is never more than the
Brahman word," beyond which lies still the Supreme.6
"Here the word signifies the sound om ; ascending by
this man attains to nothingness in that which is not a
word," like the sap of the flowers in the liquid honey.6
Thus the eighth and highest stage of yoga is reached.

(8) Samddhi, absorption. Meditation becomes absorp
tion when subject and object, the soul and God, are
so completely blended into one that the consciousness
of the separate subject altogether disappears, and there
succeeds that which in Maitr. 6. 20-21 is described
as nirdtmakatvam (selflessness). The empirical and
particularising view, with reminiscence of ideas like
those in Chanel. 8. 6. 5-6, Taitt, 1. 6, looks upon this
union as an ascent of the soul that meditates from the
heart through the vein sushumnd and the Brahmaran-

1 Dhyfinab. 4. 2 Tejob. 7. 3 Brahmab. 7.

4 Amritab. 3. « Brahmab. 17. « Maitr. G. 22.

THE YOGA 393

dhram to union with the Brahman who fills the universe.
Numerous descriptions of this progress are given, not
always mutually consistent. The heart is represented as
a lotus flower, a view already prevalent from the time of
Chand. 8. 1. I.1 "It hangs down, encompassed by the
veins, quite (d) like the calyx of a flower," a hot fire burns
in it, and from its midst a tongue of flame rises mounting
upwards.2 More detailed descriptions of this lotus flower
of the heart are found in Dhyanab. 14-16, Hamsa 8 and
frequently. At the meditation on the a the lotus flower
becomes bright, opens at the u, rings gently at the m, and
with the half mora ceases to move.3 In the body (in the
heart) there is a sun, in this a fire, and in this a tongue of
flame which is the supreme god.4 This last in the meditation
of the yoga pushes its way through the sun of the heart :—

Then it winds upwards

Through the gleaming gate of the sushumnd ;
Breaking through the arch of the skull,
It gazes finally on the Supreme.

According to Maitr. 6. 38, there is in the heart a sun,
in the latter a moon, in this a fire, in this again the
sattvam, and in this the soul, which forces its way
through all the coverings named, bursts through the
fourfold woven sheaths of Brahman (annamaya, prdna-
maya, manomaya, vijndnamaya),5 voyages with the
boat om over the ether of the heart,6 and so finally
attains to the vision of the Supreme. Compare also the
description of the ether of the heart, and its penetration
of it.7 We should thus have to understand in Brahma-
vidya 8-10 also by s'ankha not as the scholiast does the
valves of the brain but of the heart. In them, according
to this passage, the a shines as sun, in the latter the u

1 sup. p. 287. 2 Mahanar. 11. 8-12. 3 Yogat. 9-11.

4 Yogas'. 4-7. 5 Taitt. 2, Maitr. 6. 28, 38. 6 Maitr. 6. 28.

7 Maitr. 6. 22, 27.

394 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

as moon, in this again the m as fire, while above this is
the half mora as a tongue of flame.

With regard also to the ascent of the soul from the
heart very numerous representations are given. Ac
cording to Maitr. 7. 11, by meditation on ora, the tejas,
i.e. the individual soul (cp. the second of the verses
quoted below) bursts forth, ascends on high like smoke
rising in a single column, and spreads itself abroad like
one branch after another (unceasingly). Amritab. 26
represents the prana as ascending by means of the silent
om " through the gates of the heart and of the wind,
the gates which lead upward, and the portals of emanci
pation." According to Dhyanab. 22, the half mora like a
rope draws the manas upwards from the fountain of the
lotus of the heart by the path of the veins until between
the eyebrows it is lost in the Supreme. Brahmavidya
11-12 describes how by means of om the sun of the
heart and the 72000 veins1 are penetrated, the journey
upwards is made on the sushumnd (the carotis), and the
head is broken through, and the man continues to exist
as the giver of health to all beings, pervading the
universe. The conception of Kshur. 8 f. is similar,
according to which the prana climbs up from the navel
to the heart on the sushumna, like the spider on its
thread (the same illustration as in Maitr. 6. 22), and so
further still from the heart upwards; whereupon with
the knife of the power of yoga it cuts through all the
limbs, divides the 72000 and the 101 veins with the
exception of the ( 101st) sushumnd, leaves behind there
its good and evil states, and ascends upon it to its
termination in Brahman. Thus the yogin according to
Maitr. 6. 19 strips off from himself all ideas, all con
sciousness, the entire psychical framework which is
already separated from the external world (the linyam

-ih. 2. 1. 19.

THE YOGA 395

nirds'rayam, cp. Sankhya-K. 41) and "is merged in
the supreme, indescribable, ineffable Brahman " : l—

Yet the joy, which with the gradual decay

Of the mind is content with its own witness to itself,

Is Brahman pure and eternal,

The true way, the true world.2

He who " in this way at all times duly prosecutes the
yoga " after three months attains to knowledge, after four
to the vision of the gods, after five to their strength, and
after six their absolute nature.3 After six months he
"gains a part in the perfect might of yoga."' By con
tinued meditation on the morae his body by a process of
gradual refinement becomes composed in turn of earth,
water, fire, air and ether, until finally he thinks only in
and through himself (c'intayed dtmand dtmani).5

He knows nothing further of sickness, old age, or suffering,

Who gains a body out of the fire of yoga.

Activity, health, freedom from desire,

A fair countenance, beauty of voice,

A pleasant odour, fewness of secretions,

Therein at first the yoga displays its power.6

The thought of Yoga delivers from all sins,7 though the
sins were "like mountains rising many miles high" :8-

He who through thousands of births
Does not exhaust the guilt of his sins,
Sees finally by the yoga
The destruction of the samsara even here.9

1 Maitr. 6. 22. 2 Maitr. 6. 24. 3 Amritab. 28 f.

4 Maitr. 6. 28. 6 Amritab. 30-31. 6 S'vet. 2. 12-13

" Yogat. 1. 8 Dhyanab. 3. 9 Yogas'. 10.

396 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

XV11. RETROSPECT OF THE UPANISHADS AND
THEIR TEACHING

1. Introduction

The Upanishads (apart from the later and less
important books) have been handed down to us as
Vedanta, i.e. as the concluding part of the Brahmanas and
Aranyakas, which teach and expound allegoricaily the
ritual of sacrifice. They are nevertheless radically opposed
to the entire Vedic sacrificial cult, and the older they are
the more markedly does this opposition declare itself.
He who worships another deity (than the atman, the
self) and says ' It is one, and I am another,' is not wise.
But he is like a house-dog of the gods. Just, then, as many
house-dogs are of use to men, so each individual man is
useful to the gods. If one house-dog only is stolen it is
disagreeable, how much more if many ! Therefore it is not
pleasing to them that men should know this."1

This antagonism of the atman doctrine to the sacrificial
cult leads us to anticipate that at the first it would be
greeted with opposition by the Brahmans. An instance of
this is preserved to us in Yajnavalkhya, who in Brih. 3-4
meets with jealousy and contradiction at the hands of the
Brahmans, but with enthusiastic assent from King Janaka.
This ^ antagonism may have been the reason why the
doctrine of the atman, although originally proceeding from
Brahmans like Yajnavalkhya, received its earliest foster
ing and development in the more liberal-minded circles
of the Kshatriyas ; while among the Brahmans it was on
the contrary shunned for a longer period as a mystery
(upanishad), and continued therefore to be withheld from
them. The Brahman Balaki does not know that the
atman is Brahman, and is instructed on the point by king

1 Brih. 1. 4. 10.

REVIEW OF UPANISHAD TEACHING 397

Ajatas'atru.1 Six Brahmans "of great learning" first
gain from king As'vapati the knowledge that they must
seek the atman vais'vanara before all else in themselves.2
Similarly the Brahman Narada is instructed by Sanat-
kumara the god of war,3 and three Brahmans by king
Pravahana.4 While the same king Pravahana en
lightens the Brahman Uddfilaki Aruni on the subject
of the transmigration of souls with the remark : — " This
knowledge has never up to the present time been in the
possession of a Brahman." 5

According to these testimonies, which carry all the
greater weight because they have reached us through the
Brahmans themselves, the Brahmans had received the
most important elements of the science of the atman first
from the Kshatriyas, and then in course of time had
attached them to their own Vedic curriculum, so that the
Upanishads became what they now are, the Vcddnta.
The hostility towards the sacrificial cult was then by
means of allegorical interpretations, in which each school
struck out its own path,6 concealed rather than laid to rest.
That the Brahmans later on asserted a claim to the
doctrine of the atman as their peculiar heritage seems to
be asserted by the verse : — " Only he who knows the Veda
comprehends the great omnipresent atman." 7 In any case
the progress and regular development of the atman
doctrine was in their hands. And the oldest Upanishads
are to be regarded as the latest fruits of this activity,
to which were added in course of time other works pro
duced in the same spirit, which with more or less right
bore the names of Upanishad and Veddnta. Probably
only at a considerably later period did they assume a
written form. It seems a fair inference from Kfith. 2. 7—9 :

1 Brih. 2. 1 (Kaush. 4). 2 Chanel. 5. 11-18. 3 Chand. 7.

4 Chand. 1. 8-9. 6 Chand. 5. 3-10 (Brih. 6. 2) ; Brih. 6. 2. 8.

6 sup. p. 120 f. 7 Taitt. Br. 3. 12. 9. 7.

398 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

' Without a teacher there is no access here," — that the
older Upanishads were at that time not yet committed to
writing.

No satisfactory chronology of the Upanishads can be
framed, since each of the principal Upanishads contains
earlier and later texts side by side with one another. On
the whole and generally, however, the classification and
order here adopted l may be expected to correspond also
to the historical succession. A more precise confirmation
of this is to be inferred from the general course of our
exposition. Of especial weight in our view is the proof
advanced that Brili. 1-4 (not the appendix 5-6) together
with S'atap. Br. 10. 6 is older than all other texts of
importance, especially older than the Chandogya Upani-
shad. The last confessedly is dependent not only on
S'atap. Br. 10,2 but also on the Yajnavalkhya texts,3 as is
proved by the fact that often thoughts of the latter are
reproduced by the Chand. Up., and at the same time
misunderstood.4 Thus we shall have to look for the
earliest form of the doctrine of the Upanishads above all
in the Yajnavalkhya discourses of the Brihadaranyaka.

2. Idealism as the Fundamental Conception of the
Upanishads

In the conception of unity as it is expressed in the
words of Rigv. 1. 164. 46 :— ekam sad mpra bahudhd
vaddnti, "the poets give many names to that which is
one only,"— the fundamental thought of the whole teach
ing of the Upanishads lay already hidden in germ. For
this verse, strictly understood, really asserts that all
plurality, consequently all proximity in space, all succession
in time, all relation of cause and effect, all interdependence
of subject and object, rests only upon words (vadanti) or,

1 sup. pp. 23-26. 2 chand. 3. 14, 4. 3, f>. 11-18.

3 Brih. 3-4 compared with 1. 4, 2. 4. * cp. sup. pp. 205 f., 233 f., 105 £.

IDEALISM THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTION 399

as was said later, is "a mere matter of words (vdc'dram-
bliana),1 and that only unity is in the full sense real. An
attempt was made in the first instance to conceive this
unity in the mythological idea of Prajapati, then in the
ritualistic idea of Brahman, and finally without allowing
the latter to drop, and by a mere strengthening of the
subjective element already contained in it, in the philo
sophical idea of the atman. But even the fitman idea is
not at first free from definitions (of the gods, Prajapati,
and Brahman) that it has inherited from the mythology.
Thus for example in S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3, after the atman
has been described as pervading all worlds, and at the
same time, inconceivably small, dwelling at the centre of a
man's being, it is said in conclusion : — " He is my soul, to
him on my departure hence, to this soul shall I enter in."
Everyone feels the contradiction in these words, and that
there is no need of entering in after death if the fitman
really "is my soul." The first to recognise this, and to
grasp the conception of the atman in its complete subjec
tive precision, who therefore laid the foundation of the
Upanishad doctrine proper, is the Yajnavalkhya (himself
mythical throughout) of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

The teaching of Yajnavalkhya (whatever may lie con
cealed behind this name) is a daring, uncompromising,
eccentric idealism (comparable to that of Parmenides),
which is summed up in three propositions :—

(1) The atman is the knowing subject ivithin us.
" In truth, 0 Gargi, this imperishable one sees but is not
seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not com
prehended, knows but is not known. There is beside him
none that sees, there is none that hears beside him, there
is none that comprehends beside him, there is none that
knows beside him. In truth, in this imperishable one is
space inwoven and interwoven."1 Here the above funda-

i Clmnd. 6. 1. 4. 2 Brih. 3. 8. 11.

400 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

mental proposition is clearly expressed. At the same
time two further propositions are inferred from it, which
other passages abundantly confirm.

(2) The at man, as the blowing subject, is itself un
knowable. ' Thou canst not see the seer of seeing, thou
canst not hear the hearer of hearing," etc.1 " How could
he know him through whom all this is known, how could
he know the knower ? "

(3) The dtman is the sole reality. In it, as the above
passage declares, space with all that it contains is inwoven
and interwoven. " He who has seen, heard, comprehended
and known the fit-man, by him this entire universe is
known." 'The universe is given up to him who knows
the universe apart from the atman." * Only " where there
is as it were duality does one see another,"5 etc. " There
is however no second outside of him, no other distinct
from him for him to see " : 6 —

In the mind should this be perceived,
Here there is no plurality anywhere ;
From death to death is he led blindly,
Who here gazes on a plurality.7

These three thoughts are the kernel of the Upauishad
teaching, and with it became permanently the innermost
kernel of the entire religious and philosophical belief of
India. This kernel however was eventually surrounded
by a husk which, growing ever thicker as time advanced,
concealed it in many ways, until finally on the one
hand the kernel utterly perished and only the husk re
mained (the Saiikhya), while on the other (the Vedanta) an
attempt was made to separate absolutely the two elements
by distinguishing between a higher esoteric knowledge
(para vidyd) and a lower exoteric (apard vidyd). This

1 Brih. 3. 4. 2. 2 B|.ilh 2 4 14 8 Brih 2 4< 5 4 Brih. 2. 4. 6.
5 Brih. 2. 4. 14. 6 Brih. 4. 3. 23. 7 Brih. 4. 4. 19.

THEOLOGY 401

process is quite intelligible. For the ideas of Yajfiavalkhya,
which depend upon immediate intuition, though they won
a hearing in the consciousness of his contemporaries and
of posterity, yet did not find this consciousness unoccupied,
but already in the possession of two elements, to which
they had to accommodate themselves. The first was the
tradition bequeathed by the past, the second was the em
pirical view of the universe and its orderly constitution
in space, time and causal relations, which is natural to
us all. The entire subsequent development with its
phenomena often apparently inconsistent is completely
explained by a gradually increasing accommodation to
these two elements. This we propose to show briefly in
the following pages for the different parts of the teaching
of the Upanishads.

3. Theology (Doctrine of Brahman or the Atman).

The atman is the knowing subject within us. This
knowing subject is " the loftiest height of all that can be
described as atman " (sarvasya dtmanah pardyanam).1
To this height, attained in the teaching of Yajnavalkhya,
Indian thought has climbed, with a gradual intensifying
of the subjective element, through conceptions ofpurusha
(man), prdna (life), atman (self), to which were attached
the more symbolical representations of the first principle
of the Universe as okas' a (space), manas (will), dditya
(sun), etc. In these conceptions the thought of the times
preceding the Upanishads, and in part also of these times
themselves, moves. Perhaps, therefore, it may be possible
in the future to distinguish successfully those portions
which belong to a period before the recognition of the
atman as knowing subject from those which, like all that
succeeds, have come under the influence of the thought of
Yajnavalkhya. In the older texts the ultimate principle

i Brili. 3. 9. 10.

26

402 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

is still the pui*usha-prdna,1 the prdna? dditya? the
dkds'a, — " It is the akas'a from which all these living
beings proceed, and into which they again return, the
akas'a is older than they all, the akas'a is the ultimate
starting-point." 4 Combinations also occur. For example,
when the atman (still transcendentally conceived) is de
scribed as the " prdnasya dtmd" and as mano-maya,
prdna-s'arira, Wid-rtipa, okas' a-atman\b or when it is
said : — " Brahman is life (prdna), Brahman is joy (kam =
dnanda), Brahman is extension (kham = dkds'a)." *

It is otherwise in the later texts. Now it is no longer
the purusha that is the first principle, but the atman that
draws it from the primeval waters ; 7 no longer the akas'a,
but that which is in it ; 8 no longer the prdna, but the
bhtiman, the " unlimited," reached by prolonged and
deepening insight into the nature of the prana, i.e. the
knowing subject which comprehends every tiling in itself,
nothing outside of itself: — "When no other (outside of
self) is seen, no other is heard, no other is known, that
is the infinite ; when he sees, hears or knows another,
that is the finite."1 The revolution is very clearly seen
when in Ait. 1 it is no longer the prdna-purusha 10 that
makes its appearance as the ultimate principle, but the
atman, and the latter is then explained as the conscious
ness that comprehends all things in itself (prajnd).u Still
more clearly does it appear in Kaush. 3-4, where the
equation " prdna = prajnd" which is only intelligible as
arising from a compromise between series of heterogeneous
conceptions, is repeatedly emphasised. All these changes
seem to have been carried out under the influence of the

1 Ait. Ar. ± 1-3. 2 Brih. 1. 1-3, Chand. 1. 2-3, 4. 3, Kaush. 2.

3 Chand. 3. 4 Chanel. 1. 9. 1.

« S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3 (Chand. 3. 14).
« Chand. 4. 10. 5. " Ait. 1. 1.

8 ta»min yad atitar, Chand. 8. 1 ; te yad antard, 8. 14.

9 Chand. 7. 15-24. 10 As formerly in Ait. Ar. 2. 1-3. n Ait. 3.

THEOLOGY 4o3

thought, in its first original freshness in the discourses
of Yajnavalkhya, that the atman is the knowing subject
which, itself unknowable, is conceived as sustaining all
things in itself. How entirely this thought dominated
the whole succeeding development of Indian theology, a
few examples may show.

( 1 ) The atman is the knowing subject. He is "the spirit,
consisting of knowledge, wjnanamaya, shining within in
the heart," 1 the light that enlightens when sun, moon, stars
and fire are extinguished,2 the " light of lights," 3 the light
"which is here within in men," and at the same time
shines on yonder side of heaven in the highest, the highest
of all worlds,4 the "supreme light," into which the soul
enters in deep sleep, and "issues forth in its own form."5
And of this light of consciousness, which first invests all
with intelligibility, we are to think when it is said :

There no sun shines, nor moon, nor glimmer of stars,
Nor yonder lightning, earthly fire is quenched;
All other light is inferior to him who alone gives light,
The whole universe shines with his brightness.6

This light that alone is self-shining is the "seer"
(vipas'cit), who, according to Kath. 2. 18, neither is born
nor dies, the "all-beholder" (paridrashtar)? the "spec
tator " (sdkshin), as the atman is so frequently called in
the later Upanishads.8

(2) The atman as the knoiving subject can never become
an object for us, and is therefore itself unknowable.
" Thou canst not see the seer of seeing," etc.9 Whatever
conception we may form of it, it is always said : — neti,
neti, " it is not so, it is not so." 10 It is that " before which

1 Brill. 4. 3. 7 f. 2 Brih. 4. 3. 2-6. 8 Brih. 4. 4. 16, Mund. 2. 2. 9

4 Chand. 3. 13. 7. 5 Chand. 8. 3. 4, 8. 12. 3.

6 K^h. 5. 15, S'vet. 6. 14, Mund. 2. 2. 10. 7 Pras-na 6. 5.

8 From S'vet. 6. 14 and onwards. 9 Brih. 3. 4. 2.

10 Brih. 4. 2. 4, 4. 4. 22, 4. 5. 15, 3. 9. 26, 2. 3. 6.

4o4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

words and thought recoil, not finding it ; " l " not known
by the wise, known by the ignorant." !

Not by speech, not by thought,

Not by sight is he comprehended ;

"He is," by this word alone

And in no other way is he comprehended.8

The atman therefore can only be defined negatively.
He is " not big and not slender, not short and not long,
not red and not fluid, not cloudy and not dark, not wind
and not ether, not adhesive, without taste or smell, with
out eye or ear, without speech, without understanding,
without vital force and without breath, without mouth and
without size, without inner or outer ; 4 invisible, incom
prehensible, without pedigree, colourless, without eyes or
ears, without hands or feet." 6 The threefold definition
also as " being thought and bliss" (sac'-cid-dnanda), by
which a later age characterised the atman, and to the
separate elements of which reference is frequently made
even in the older Upanishads,6 is essentially only negative.
For the " being" of the atman is no being as revealed in
experience, and in an empirical sense is rather a not-
being ; and similarly the " thought" is only the negation
of all objective being, and the "bliss" the negation of all
suffering, as this exists in deep dreamless sleep. On the
observation of which last state, as was shown,7 this de
scription was originally based.

(3) The atman is the sole reality (satyam, satyasya
satyam); for it is the metaphysical unity which is
manifested in all empirical plurality. This unity
however is not to be found elsewhere than in our
selves, in our consciousness, in which, as with splendid
elaboration Brih. 3. 8 shows, the whole of space with all
that it contains, with earth atmosphere and heaven, is

i Tnitt. 2. 4. 2 Kena 11. 3 Kath. 6. 12. 4 Brih. 3. 8. 8.

* Mund 1. 1. 6. B sup. pp. 128-146. 7 sup. p. 142 f.

COSMOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 405

"inwoven and interwoven." Therefore with the know
ledge of the atman (the reference here is not to knowledge
in an empirical sense) all is known,1 as with the compre
hension of the instrument all its notes are comprehended.
He is abandoned by men, gods and all worlds, who knows
a universe outside of the atman.3 All besides him exists
only " as it were " (iva). There is really no plurality,4
and no becoming, " change is a mere matter of words, a
simple name."5 The later Upanishads breathe the same
spirit ; the entire universe should be immersed in God
(i.e. the atman);6 nature is a mere mdyd (illusion);7
and the striking remark is added that no demonstration
of the existence of a duality is ever possible, and that
only the timeless atman (the knowing subject) admits of
proof.8

4. Cosmology and Psychology

PANTHEISM. — Metaphysical knowledge impugns the
existence of any reality outside of the atman, i.e. the
consciousness. The empirical view on the contrary
teaches that a manifold universe exists external to us.
From a combination of these antagonistic propositions
originated the doctrine which in all the Upanishads
occupies the largest space, and which may conveniently
be described as pantheism (though in its origin very
different from the pantheism of Europe), — the universe is
real, and yet the atman remains the sole reality, for the
atman is the universe. This identity of universe and
atman is already taught by Yfijnavalkhya (who is as little
able as Parmenides to avoid placing himself again
temporarily at the empirical standpoint), when he

1 Brih. 2. 4. 5, Chand. 6. 1. 2, Muml. 1. 1. 3.

2 Brih. 2. 4. 7-9. 3 Brih. 2. 4. 6.

4 Brih. 4. 4. 19, Kath. 4. 10-11. * Chand. 6. 1. 4 f., cp. 8. 1. 3.

6 ls-a 1. 7 S'vet. 4. 10. 8 Nrisiihhott. 9.

406 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

celebrates the atman as the antarydmin ; l or when he
describes how the atman upholds and maintains sun and
moon, heaven and earth, the entire universe and its
frame ; 2 or when the knowing subject in us is made
suddenly to expand into the universe around us on
every side.3 The later passages are numerous and do
not need to be repeated here, which identify the atman as
the infinitely small within us with the infinitely great
outside of us ; and in this way the identity of the
two, the atman and the universe, is incessantly em
phasised, as though it were a matter which stood greatly
in need of emphasis.

COSMOGONY. — None the less the equation " atman =
universe " remained very obscure. The one atman and
the manifold universe, often as they were brought
together, always fell asunder again. A natural step
therefore was taken, when more and more as time went
on instead of this unintelligible identity the familiar
empirical category of causality made its appearance, by
virtue of which the atman was represented as the cause
chronologically antecedent, and the universe as its effect,
its creation ; and thus a connection with the ancient Vedic
cosmogony became possible. Such a connection is not yet
to be traced in Brill. 1. 4, where the cosmological form
merely serves to explain the dependence of all the
phenomena of the universe on the atman. It is present
however in all probability in Chfmd. 3. 19, 6. 2, Taitt. 2.
6, Ait. 1. 1, etc. It is characteristic at this point that
the atman, after having evolved the universe from himself,
enters himself into it as soul. " That deity resolved :—
1 Verily into these three deities (heat, water, food) I will
enter with this living self " ;4 " After he had created the
universe he entered into it";6 "He reflected: — 'How

1 Brih. 3. 7. 2 Brih. 3. 8. 9. 8 Brih. 4. 2. 4.

4 Chanel. 6. 3. 2. • Taitt. 2. 6.

COSMOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 407

could this subsist without me ? ' . . . accordingly he cleft
here the crown of the head, and entered in through this
gate."1 The individual soul maintains even at this stage
its identity with the attnan. It is not, like everything
else, a created work of the atman ; but it is the atman
himself, as he enters into the world that he has created.
A distinction between the supreme and the individual soul
does not even yet exist.

THEISM. — Theism is a further and chronologically later
stage of development, which first arises at the point at
which the supreme and individual souls appear contrasted
with one another. This was early anticipated ; 2 but later
on the individual soul became more and more definitely
opposed to the supreme soul as " another." 3 At the same
time a theory of predestination was established, as an
inevitable consequence of theism :—

Only by him whom he chooses is he comprehended ;
To him the atman reveals his nature.4

The chief monument of this theism is the SVetas'vatara
Upanishad. It must be remembered however that here
all the earlier stages of development, the idealistic,
pantheistic and cosmogonistic, continue to exist side by
side ; as indeed generally in the religious sphere the old is
accustomed to assert its time-honoured right by the side
of the new, the fruits of which are readily seen in far-
reaching inner contradictions.

ATHEISM and DEISM (Sankhya and Yoga Systems).-
With the recognition of a real universe external to the
atman, and the division of the latter into the supreme
soul and a multitude of individual souls, the preliminary
conditions of the later Sankhya system were satisfied.

1 Ait. 1. 3. 11. 2 By passages like Brih. 4. 4. 22, Kaush. 3. 8 (ad fin.).

3 First in Kath. 1. 3, then S'vet. 4. 6-7, 5. 8, etc.

4 Kath. 2. 23 (Miind. 3. 2. 3).

408 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

For that division necessarily led to the destruction of the
one branch, viz. : — the supreme soul, since from the very
beginning this had in reality derived its vitality from the
existing fact of individual souls. When powers of creation
and movement were assigned to matter itself God became
superfluous, and there were left only prakriti and the
multitude of individual purushas, — the precise assump
tions of the Sankhya system, which admits probably of
philosophical explanation in no other way than that we
have followed. A reconstruction of theism was attempted
in the Yoga system ; which in harmony with its later
origin builds upon the basis of the Sankhya system, very
little fitted as that was for the purpose, a yoga practice
which depends upon the teaching of the Upanishads.
While then it certainly reintroduces the idea of God, it
finds it impossible to give to the conception any real
vitality on such a basis as this. So that this theory
(practically, if not on the ground of its origin) may be
fitly placed in a line with the Deism of later philosophy.

5. Escliatology (Transmigration and Emancipation)

In proportion as Brahman usurped the place of
the ancient Vcdic gods, and was interpreted in harmony
with the idea of the atman, the hope also which finds
expression in the Rigveda of entering in after death to
the gods was transformed in course of time into a hope
of attaining " community of world," " community of
life" with Brahman, or later on with the &tman. At
the same time the idea of the atman also, by virtue of
the continued influence of that which it had displaced,
was at first still conceived in a transcendental way, and
it is said: — "He is my soul (atman); to him, to this
soul, shall I departing hence enter in." * If however the
atman is really my soul, my self, no entering in is

1 S'atap. Br. 10. 6. 3. 2.

ESCHATOLOGY 409

necessary, but only the knowledge of this fact, in order
to become partaker of a full and complete deliverance.
He who has recognised that aham brahma asmi, " I am
Brahman," he already is, not will be delivered ; he sees
through the illusion of plurality, knows himself as the
sole real, as the substance of all that exists, and is thereby
exalted above all desire (kdma), for " what can he desire
who possesses all ? " This also Yajnavalkhya is the first
to teach in the words : — " He who without desire, free
from desire, his desire laid to rest, is himself his own
desire, his vital spirits do not journey forth. But he is
Brahman, and to Brahman he ascends." 2

Deliverance is not effected by the knowledge of the
atman, but this knowledge is itself already deliverance.
He who knows himself as the atman has thereby recog
nised the world of plurality and the desire occasioned by
plurality to be an illusion, which can no longer lead him
astray. His body is no longer his body, his actions no
longer his actions ; whether he still continues to live
and to act or not is, like everything else, a matter of
indifference.3 But the semblance of empirical knowledge
persists, and it is a consequence of this that deliverance
appears to be first attained in all its completeness after
the dissolution of the body. And a still more far-reaching
influence of the empirical mode of thought combined with
the traditions of the past caused this internal deliverance
from the world, the fruit of the emancipating knowledge
of the atman, to be represented as an ascent from the
world to a transcendent distance, in order there for the
first time to become united with Brahman, with the
atman. The theory therefore was formed of the way
of the gods (devaydna), on which the emancipated were
led after death through a series of bright stages to
union with Brahman, whence "there is no return."4

i Gaudap. 1. 9. 2 Brih. 4. 4. 6. 8 Is'd 2. 4 Chand. 4. 15. 5.

410 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

What becomes however of those who die without
having known themselves as the &tman ? The Brahmanas
set before them for their good or evil deeds a recompense
of joy or suffering in the other world. To the evil-doers
was assigned also " recurrent death " (punarmrityu). In
contrast with the immortality (amritatvam, literally the
"no more being able to die") of the perfected there
remained for others the prospect of enduring in the other
world together with other misfortune a " renewed necessity
of death " ; and this, since it has to do with those who
have already died, is not to be thought of as experienced
in the body, but indefinitely as a state of sufferings,
which are in store in the other world as a recompense
for evil-doing. It is the Upanishads first — and again
for the first time by the mouth of Yajnavalkhya — that
transfer this retribution with its threat of recurrent death
from an imaginary future into the present, since they
place before it a renewed earthly existence. This is the
origin of the theory of the Indian doctrine of transmigra
tion (samsara), which does not rest on superstitious ideas
of the return of the dead in other forms, such as are found
amongst other peoples and even in India itself, but as the
texts prove, on observation of the variety of the character
and fate of individual men, which were explained as
resulting from the actions of a previous existence. " In
truth a man becomes good by good works, evil by evil."1
' Verily according as he acts, according as he lives, so is
he born ; he who does good is born good, he who does
evil is born evil, he becomes righteous by righteous works,
evil by evil . . . according to the work which he does, so is
he rewarded." 2

These words of Yajnavalkhya (the oldest in which a
doctrine of transmigration is found) substitute a recom
pense in this world for one in the other, and this takes

1 Brih. 3. 2. 13. a Bfih. 4. 4. 6.

ESCHATOLOGY 4n

place by means of a re-birth on earth, apparently immedi
ately after death.1 While this theory met with accept
ance, the ancient Vedic conception of a recompense for all
alike, good and evil, in the other world held its ground
by its side; and finally the two were combined in the
doctrine of a double retribution, the first in the other
world, lasting ydvat sampdtam " as long as a remnant
(of works) remains," 2 after which everything is once again
recompensed by means of a renewed existence upon earth.
This recompense of those already recompensed contradicts
so entirely the whole conception of recompense, that it
is impossible to understand it otherwise than as a com
bination of ideas derived from various sources. This is
the point of view of the "doctrine of the five fires"
(panc'dgnividyd)* which constructs, on the analogy of
the way of the gods (devaydna) that leads to Brahman
without return, a way of the fathers (pitriyana) that
leads to the moon and then back again to earth ; and this
was subsequently still further modified,4 and has become
the permanent basis of the whole of the later development.
The clothing of the doctrine of emancipation in
empirical forms involved as a consequence the conceiving
of emancipation, as though it were an event in an empirical
sense, from the point of view of causality, as an effect
which might be brought about or accelerated by appro
priate means. Now emancipation consisted on its external
phenomenal side : —

(1) In the removal of the consciousness of plurality.

(2) In the removal of all desire, the necessary con
sequence and accompaniment of that consciousness.

To produce these two states artificially was the aim
of two characteristic manifestations of Indian culture.

1 cp. the illustration of the caterpillar, Brih. 4. 4. 3.

2 Chand. 5. 10. 5. 3 Chand. 5. 3-10 (Brih. 6. 2).
* Kaush. 1.

4i2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS

(1) Of the yoga, which by withdrawing the organs
from the objects of sense and concentrating them on the
inner self endeavoured to shake itself free from the world
of plurality and to secure union with the atman.

(2) Of the sannydsa, which by the "casting off
from oneself" of home, possessions, family and all that
stimulates desire seeks laboriously to realise that freedom
from all the ties of earth, in which a deeper conception
of life in other ages and countries also has recognised the
supreme task of earthly existence, and will probably con
tinue to recognise throughout all future time.

INDEX I

SUBJECTS

Aditya, 115. See also sun.

agnihotram, 63, 124 f., 375.

agni Vais'vanara, 375.

aham brahma asmi, 39.

aharikara, 241 ff., 248, 261, 264.

fikas'a, 151 f., 194, 401 f. ; as symbol of
Brahman, 111 ff., 118.

ananda, 126 f., 156; as symbol of
Brahman, 140 ff.

anandamaya atman, 97 f., 144 f., 283.

Anaximander, 225.

arigas of the yoga, 385 f.

annamaya atman, 97, 144, 146.

antaryamin, 108, 119, 169, 174, 206 f.,
211.

apana, 264, 275 ff.

Aranyaka, 2 ff., 120, 396.

Aristotle, 99, 189, 255.

ftsanam, 387 f.

asceticism, 61, 65-70, 373. See also tapas.

as'ramas, 4, 60 f., 367 ff., 373 f.

astronomical conceptions, 218 f.

as'vamedha, 121.

as'vattha, 203.

Atharva Upanishads, 7 ff., 26.

atheism, 238, 407.

atman, 14f., 38 f., 79, 82, 108, 152, 157ff.,
172 ff., 235 ff., 342 ff., 355 ff., 373 f.,
396 ff., 402 ff.; the atman as first
principle, 86 f . ; different utmans,
94 ff. ; the atman and the creation,
182ff.; the atman and the organs,
265 ff. See also Brahman.

Atman Vais'vfinara, 90 ff.
avidya, 74, 77, 158 f., 227, 254.

Badarayana, 27 ff., 54, 100, 180, 184,
192, 220 f., 317.

Bahudaka, 377, 379.

Bfilaki Gargya, 87 f., 396.

Benares, 380.

bhuman, 81, 94, 151.

bhdr Ihuvah svar, 217.

body, the ' gross, 283 f. ; the subtle,
280 ff.

brahmac'arin, 4 f., 367, 369 ff.

Brahman, 38 ff., 75, 79, 163, 323, 335 f.,
342, 359, 390, 395, 401 f., 408 f.;
Brahman as unity, 85 ff. ; definitions
of Brahman, 87 ff. ; symbols of
Brahman, 99 ff., 117f. ; Brahman
as being, etc., 126 ff. ; as conscious
ness, 132 ff. ; as bliss, 140ff. ;
unknowableness of Brahman,
146 ff. ; Brahman and the universe,
157 ff. ; Brahman as the psychical
principle, 166 ff. ; as personal god,
172 ff.; as creator, 180 ff.; as pre
server and ruler, 202 ff. ; as Pro
vidence, 211 ff.; as destroyer of
the universe, 219 ff. See also
atman.

Brahman, 198 ff., 247, 331.
Brahmanas, 2 if., 229, 324 f., 334, 345,
396.

413

414

INDEX I

buddhi, 201, 246 ff., 261, 264.
Buddhism, 51, 140, 255, 341.

Causality, 154, 356, 406.

chronology, 388.

c'it, 156 ; as symbol of Brahman, 132 ff.

Colebrooke, 33 ff.

cosmical principle, Brahman as the

159 ff.
cosmogony, cosmogonism, 237 f., 246,

257 f., 406 f.
cosmography, 214 ff.
cosmology, 52, 180ff., 405 ff.

Dante, 320.

death, 248 f., 356 f., 381 ; renewed

death, 326 ff., 332, 357, 410 f.
deep sleep, 306 ff. See also sushupti.
deism, 238 f., 407.
Descartes, 160, 244.
determinism, 209.
deva, 173, 175.
devayana, 100, 334 ff., 359 f., 390, 409,

411.

dhuranu, 389 f .
dhyunam, 388, 390 ff.
dream -sleep, 296, 302 ff.
dress, of the Sannyusin, 378 f.
dualism, 244 ff.

Earth, as an element, 191 ff.
elements, 186, 189 ff., 234, 376.
emancipation, 253 ff., 338 ff., 363, 382 f.,

408 f.

Epicharmiifl, 273 note,
eschatology, 52, 358, 408 ff. ; ancient

Vedic eschatology, 317ff.
ethics of the Upanishads, 52, 364 ff.
evolution, 246 ff.

Fire, as an element, 191 ff.
five fires, doctrine of the, 328, 333 f.,
359 f., 411.

food, of the Sannyusin, 379 f.
freedom of the will, 45 f., 208 ff.

Ganges, 214.

Gayatri, 310, 376; as symbol of

Brahman, 122f.
Goethe, 117, 316.
grihastha, 4f., 367, 371 f., 375.
gunas, 234, 242, 245, 250 ff., 391.

Heart, 286 ff.

heavenly regions, 217.

Heracleitus, 225, 244.

Herodotus, 316.

Hillebrandt, 149.

Himalaya, 214.

hiranyagarbha, 187, 190, 198 ff., 229,

247, 250.

hitah, 288 ff., 306. See also sushumna.
Homer, 71.

Idealism, 97, 160, 162, 172, 229 f., 237,

257, 399 f.

ignorance, 74-85, 130.
illusion, 48, 254, 362 f. See also maya.
immortality, 45 f., 326.
individual souls, 258 ff.
Indra, 12, 94 f., 173.
indriyas, 241 ff., 248, 263, 270 ff.
Indus, 214.

inorganic nature, 186 ff.
Islam, 341.
is'vara, 159, 172f., 175, 260, 384.

Jiva atman, 258.

Kalpa, 220.

Kant, 40 ff., 45 f., 75, 134, 208 f.,

315.

Kapila, 200, 239.
karma, 263, 334. -
karmakanda, 47.

INDEX I

415

knowledge, in relation to Brahman,

79-85.

kos-a, 97, 283.
Kshatriyas, 17 ff., 120, 340 f., 396 f.

Lirigam, 241 ff., 282.

Miidhyandinas, 349.

manas, 89, 99 f., 241 ff., 248, 261, 263 f.,

270 ff., 291, 389 f., 401; as symbol

of Brahman, 111 f., 115f.
manomaya atman, 58, 97 f., 144, 271,

283.

Manu, 317.
nmya, 42, 46, 74, 178, 226 ff., 384, 405.

See also illusion,
monotheism, 175.
moon, 218, 292, 335 ff., 359 f., 393,

411.

mora, morse, 387, 390 f ., 393 ff.
Muktika, Canon of the, 33, 35.
muni, 66 f ., 368.

Narada, 57, 92.
Narayana, 33 ff.
neti neti, 82, 119, 147, 149 f., 156, 392,

403.

New Testament, 46 f ., 49.
Nyagrodha, 202 f.

Occupation, of the Sannytisin, 381 f.

Old Testament, 47, 50, 160.

oro, 59, 100 f., 116, 121, 376, 379, 384 f.,

390 ff., 394.

omnipotence of the atman, 205.
omnipresence of the atman, 204.
organic nature, 195 ff.
organisms, 291 ff.
organs of the soul, 263 ff. ; of the atman,

265 ff.
Oupnek'hat, 33, 36 f .

Pantheism, 160, 237, 245, 257 f., 405 f .

Paramahamsa, 377, 379.

Parmenides, 41, 74, 133, 227, 244, 405.

Patanjali, 384.

pessimism, 140.

physiology, 283 ff.

pitriyana, 62 f., 334 ff., 359, 373, 390,

411.

planets, 219.

Plato, 41 f., 74, 153 f., 189, 227, 293.
plurality, 44, 156, 363.
Prajapati, 85 f., 95 f., 182 f., 191, 218,

293, 331, 375.

prajiiatman, 135, 139, 299, 307.
prakriti, 161, 234 f., 238, 240 ff., 259 ff.,

408.
prana, 75, 89, 92 f., 100 f., 124 f., 139,

218, 221, 248 f., 268, 276 ff., 291,

385, 394, 401 f. ; as symbol of

Brahman, 101 ff., 118, 144.
pranas, 87, 130, 263, 269 f. ; varieties

of, 264, 274 ff.

pranagnihotram, 63, 124 f., 380.
pranamaya atman, 97 f., 144, 283.
pranayama, 385 f ., 388 f .
pratikam, 99 f.
pratyahara, 385 f., 389.
predestination, 210.
Providence, Brahman as, 211 ff.
psychology, 52, 256 ff., 405 if.
purusha, 139, 161, 188, 208, 238, 240 ff.,

252, 286, 311, 384, 401 f., 408 ;

purusha in the sun, 87, 114 f., 121.
Pythagoras, 11.

Rajas, 242, 246, 250, 252 f.

Ramayana, 214.

realism, 160, 162, 172.

reality, 157 ff, 355 f., 400. See also

satyam.
recompense, retribution, 259, 329,331 f.,

336, 410 f.

Sac'cidtmanda, 126 ff., 146, 404.
sacrifice, 61ff.

4i6

INDEX I

Sakalya, 88.

Sakhas, 3, 5f., 19,21,23,33.

samadhi, 392 ff.

samana, 279.

samsara, 258, 410.

S'arikara, 10, 27, 29 ff., 72, 150, 156,

180 f., 185, 221, 223, 256, 313,

331.
Sankhya, 140, 193, 200 f., 235, 239 ff.,

250 ff., 264, 384, 400, 407 f .
Sannyasa, 363, 373 ff., 383, 412.
Sannyasa Upanishads, 9 f ., 374.
sannyasin, 5, 367, 372 f., 375, 379 ff.
8'astras, 121.

sat, 156 ; sat and asat, 128 ff.
sattvam, 242, 245, 250, 252 f.
satyara, 75, 162, 404 ; satyam and

asatyam, 128ff. See also reality.
Say ana, 2 note, 75, 199.
Schopenhauer, 11, 49, 71, 350.
sheath, 393. See also kos'a.
S'iva Upanishads, 10.
sleep, 248 f., 297 ff.

soul, states of the, 296 ff. See also atman,
space. See akas'a.
Spinoza, 96, 160.
subtle body, stikshmam s'artram, 263 f .,

280 ff.
sun, 218, 393, 401 ; as symbol of

Brahman, 113ff.
sushumna,284, 290, 392, 394.
sushupti, 296 ff. See also deep sleep,
symbols of Brahman, 99 ff.

Tamas, 242, 246, 250, 252 f.

tanmatras, 241 ff., 248.

tapas, 65-70, 217, 364 ff., 373.

tat tvam asi, 127, 148, 170.

theism, 78, 160, 175 ff., 212 f., 238, 245,

407.

theology, 52, 54 ff., 401 ff.
thread, sacred, 377.
time, 153 f.
transmigration, 292, 313 ff., 323 ff., 408,

410 f

tridandam, 378.

turiya, 122 f., 178 f., 297, 299 f.,

309 ff.
two ways, doctrine of the, 328, 334 f .

Udana, 280.

udgitha, 105 f., 114, 121.

uktham, 55, 121.

universe, creation of the, 182 ff^ 196 f.;
universe and the atman, 188 f. ;
195 f., 202.

unknowableness of Brahman, 82, 146 ff.,
391.

unreality of the universe, 226 ff.

upadhis, 256, 261.

upanayanam, 70.

upanishad, meaning of the term, 10 ff.,
56 ; 75, 89, 130, 397.

Upanishads, of the three older Vedas,
5ff. ; origin and history, 16ff. ;
classification of extant, 22 ff. ; funda
mental conception of, 38 ff. ; relation
to philosophy, 40 ff. ; to religion,
44 ff.

Vais'vanara, 299 f. ; vais'vanara sacri
fice, 375. See also Agni Vais'vanara.

vanaprastha, 4 f., 367, 372 f., 375.

vayu, 194 ; as symbol of Brahman, 101,
107 ff., 119.

Veda, 46 ff., 55 ff., 76, 370 f.; Vedas,
381, 391.

Vedanta, 1 ff., 21, 52 f., 56, 59, 72, 163,
219 f., 239, 253, 256, 315, 396 f.,
400.

Vedanta Upanishads, 9.

Vedic eschatology, 317 ff.

vidya, 315, 400.

vijSanamaya atman, 82, 85, 97 f., 144 f.,
169, 283, 403.

Vishnu Upanishads, 10.

Voltaire, 296.

vyana, 279.

INDEX I

417

Waking state of the soul, 296 it'..

300 f.

water, as an element, 190 f.
Weber, 340.

Xenophanes, 133, 173, 316.

Ytijiiavalkhya, 7, 21, 79 ff., 89 f., 133ff.,
147, 214, 228, 230 if., 235 f., 294,
332 ff., 344, 347 f., 360, 372, 396,
398 f., 401 tf.

Yam a, 319 f.

yoga, 85, 116, 239, 248 ff., 264, 309, 363,

381, 382 ff., 392, 395, 407 f., 412.
i Yoga Upanishads, 9.

INDEX II

REFERENCES

The Index includes all passages quoted or translated in the text, and all of which
important illustrative use is made.

Amritabindu— continued

Aitareya Aranyaka

AVany.

Adhy. Khanda

PAGE

II.

1-2"

. 118

1-3 ...

121, 402

6 . 1.5

. 199

III.

2.6.9

11, 70

Aitar ey a Brahm.

Adhyaya

5

. 32

. 187

8

. 28

. 108

A it a reya Upan i*had

Atlhy. 1

vhanda

I.

402

1 . . 185, 189,

191, 402

1-2 ...

. 267

2

211

3 . 11

186, 407

3 . -12

196, 299

11, 12 ...

. 172

II.

1 ...

292

2-3.

293

4 ....

317

III.

. . . 118,

139, 402

2 ....

. 272

3 . 169, 196, 199,

234, 292

4 ....

359

Amfitabindu

1,2 ...

. 390

3 ....

392

4

391 !

PAGR

6 .

. 385, 387 f .

7-8

. 389

10f., 13 .

. 389

16 .

. 388

17, 18 .

. 387

19 .

. 389

22 .

. 388

24 .

. 391

26 .

. 394

27 .

. 387

28 f.

. 395

30 31

395

34 35

275

Aruneya
2 . . ' . . .381

3 381

4 382

Asrama

1-4 .... 374
4 378 f.

A tharvas'iras
4 225

6 .... 217, -1-1\

Atharvaveda
Kanda Anuvaka
IV 34 .
V. 19 . . 3, 13

320
322

418

INDEX II

419

Atharvaveda- continued

Brihafldranyaka - continued

Kadna

Anuvaka

PACK j Adhyaya Brahmana

PACJK

X.

7

.7,8 .

. 183

I. 3 .

22 . . 197

7

. 21

. 229

4 .

. 188, 406

7

. 36,38 .

. 66

4 .

1 . 265

8

. 9

269, 286

4 .

2 . 354

8

. 34

. 229

4 .

3-4 . 198, 293

8

. 44

. 343

4 .

6 174, 198, 247

XI.

3

. 32

. 323

4 .

7 134, 165, 171

4

103

, 107, 183

185, 195, 230

5

66

266, 292, 296

8

.

. 377

4 .

10 39,62, 175

XV.

12

.

. 325

189, 317

345, 396

Atma

4 .

11-13 . . 174

1

285

4

H — 1 r> 1Q8

2

.

. 195

4 .

J. *J . . 1 C7O

15 . . 327

4 .

16 . . 15

Bddardyami

5 .

2 . 125, 327

n.

1

. 14

163, 184

5 .

3 . . 273

1

. 35

. 220

5

4 . 102

4

. 22

. 192

5

13 . .190

in.

2

. 22

. 150

5 .

16 . 02, 327

5 .

17 . . 294

Bhagavad Gitd

5 .

21-23 . . 107

5

. 13

269, 283

5 .

23 85, 163, 385

6

. 5

. 366

6 .

3 75, 130, 165

8

. 6

. 282

231

8

. 17-19 .

. 220

II. 1 .

. 14, 17f., 24, 38

9

. 7

. 220

87, 89, 397

13

. 17

. 136

1 .

5-8 . .187

1 .

16 . 167, 297

Brahmabindu

1 .

17-20 . . 136

1-5

389

1 .

18-19 . . 298

5

390

1 .

19 .288, 306 f.

7

392

1 .

20 75, 130, 162

15

287

164, 167, 232

17

392

2 .

1 . 283

18

. 390

2 .

3 f. . . 269

3 .

. 118

Brihadd ranyaka

3 .

1 . 129

Adhyaya

Brahmana

3 .

6 . .147

I.

1-2

122

4 .

167

2

. 1

. 221

4 .

1 . . 372

2

. 7

. 327

4 .

5 14, 42, 43, 74

3

. 2-6 .

269, 273

157, 257

3

. 12-16 .

. 174

4 .

5, 6 . . 400

420

INDKX II

Brihaddrnnyaka— continued

Adhyaya Brahniana PACK

II. 4 . '.5, 7-9 . . 405

4 . . 6 . 43

4 . . 7 f. . 43, 234

4 . . 7-9 76, 157, 231

4 . .10 . . 55 f.

4 . .11 . 134,266

4 . .12 79, 81, 165

201, 349

4 . .13 . . 307

4 . .14 158, 231 f., 400
5 207

5 . . 1-7 . . 269
5 . . 1-10 . . 187
5 . .15 . . 232
5 . .18 . 171, 196
5 . .19 . . 151

III. 1 123

1 . . 2 . 370

1 . . 3-6 . . 269
1-9 .... 215
1-1V. 5 . . . .288

2 . . 1-9 . . 282
2 . . 2 . 276
2 . . 2-9 . . 270
2 . .10 . 327, 350
2 . .11 . .349
2 . .12 . . 349

2 . .13 . 330, 410

3 .... 215, 357
3 . . 1 . 370

3 . . 2 . 108, 327
3-4 .... 8

4 .... 133, 170
4 . .1 . .257

4 . . 2 .80, 141

400, 403
4,5 .... 167

5 . . .148, 353, 355

368, 373
5 . .1 68, 141, 257

294, 372

7 ... 119, 174, 406
7 . . 1-2 . .89
7 . . 2 . 108

73 206

Brihaddranyaka — continued

Adliysiya ttruhmana PAGE

III. 7 . '. 3-14 . . 187
7 . . 3-23 108,176,257
7 . .5 . .169
7 . .12 . .113

7 . . 16-23 . . 270

8 .... 154,404
8 . .7 . .151
8 . . 8 . 147,404
8 . . 9 . 176, 205

209, 406

8 . .10 .68, 327
368, 373

8 . .11 80, 133, 399

9 . . 1 . 174
9 . .10 . .401
9 . . 10-17 . . 88 f.
9 . . 10-18 . . 208
9 . -20 . .287
9 . . 20-24 . . 217
9 . . 21-25 . . 287
9 . .26 .88, 208
9 . .28 . .126

IV. 1 126

1 . . 2-7 . 86, 270

1 . . 6 . 273
1-2 .... 71
2 347

2 . . 1 . 56
2 . . 3 . 288,305

2 . .4 83, 147, 151

163, 406

3 . . If. . .12
3 . . 2-6 . . 403
3 . .7 158, 232, 298

301, 308

3 . . 7f. . .403

3 . .9 . .299

3 . . 9, 12 f. . 308

3 . . 9-14 . . 302

3 . . 9-18,19-33. 298

3 . .10 . .80

3 . . 10,35 . . 308

3 . .11 . .308

3 . . 11-16 . . 267

3 12 275

INDEX II

421

Adhyaya

IV

'rihaddranya

lea— continued BrihaddranyaJca- continued

a Brahmana

PAGE

Adliyaya Brahmana

PACK

3 .

15 . , 308

IV. 5 . ".

13

13(5, 165

3 .

16, 18 . . 301

5

13, 14 .

. 349

3 .

19-33 . 142, 144

5 .

15

. 147

298, 306

V. 1 .

166

3 .

20 288, 303, 305

2 . r

365

3 .

21 f. . . 304

4 .

14

. 350

3 .

23 . 136, 400

5 .

115

3 .

23-30 . .157

5 .

1

. 131

3 .

23-31 . . 80

^5 ~

2-3 .

. 218

3 .

31,32 . . 232

9 .

. 116

3 .

32 140, 204, 309

10

357

3 .

33 . . 145

14 .

123, 165

3 .

37-38 . . 303

15 .

.

115, 358

3-4 .

. 71, 135

VI. 1 .

7-13 .

. 104

4 .

If. . . 136

2 .

. 328

4 .

2 . 80, 349

2 .

2

318,333

4 .

2-3 . . 286

2 .

3

. 57

4 .

2-6 . . 330

2 .

7

. 369

4 .

3 . 282,411

2 .

8

. 18

4 .

3, 4 77, 137, 145

2 .

14

. 333

4 .

4 . 197

2

15

68, 360

4 .

5 209, 281, 410

2 .

15-16 .

. 218

4 .

5-6 . . 282

2 .

16

63, 373

4 .

6 . 409

3 .

12

11, 70

4 .

6-7 . . 348

4 .

5f.

268

4 .

8-9 . . 289

4 .

10-11 .

. 278

4 .

8-21 . . 24

4 .

10 . . 84

Chandogya

4 .

11-12 . . 77

Prapathaka Khamla

4 .

12-13 . . 350

I. 1 . '.

10

. 16

4 .

15-17 . . 350

2 .

2-6 .

. 269

4 .

16 . . 403

3 .

2

. 276

4 .

17 . . 215

6-7

.

. 141

4 .

18 . 138, 267

9 .

1 112,

222, 401

4 .

19 44, 157 f., 162

10-11 .

§

. 62

232, 400, 405

10 .

9-11 .

. 286

4 .

20 . . 154

11 .

4-7 .

. 286

4 .

21 . .58

11 .

5

. 102

4 .

22 60, 147, 170

II. 23 .

68

176, 205, 233

23 .

1 60, 367

f., 371 f.

287, 294, 346

III. 1-11

.

. 114

353, 368, 373

11 .

.

. 137

4 .

23 . 72, 355

11 .

3

. 138

4 .

25 . . 1.47

11 ..

5

11,70

4

66 136

12 .

122

4 a 2

INDEX II

Chdndoyya— continued

Chd ndog ya — cont i n ued

Prapathaka Kliamla

PAGE

Prapathaka Khanda

PAGE

III. ' 12 .

1

. 37G

V. 10 . '.

1-3 .

. 218

1-2 .

7-9 .

.112f.

10 .

5

336, 410

13 .

1-5 275,

287, 289

10 .

7

. 3: ;7

13 .

7

169, 403

10 .

9

. 366

13

7-8

. 116

11 .

91

14 .

1 10,

162, 180

11 .

5

. 366

14 .

2

163, 168

11 .

7

71, 370

14 .

3

. 152 f.

11, 12 .

.

18

14 .

4 . 258, 355 f.

11-18 .

. 397

1G, 17 .

.

63, 123

11-24 .

. 1

7, 28, 63

17 .

. 3(55

116, 215

18 .

.

. Ill

12-17 .

.

. 100

18 .

1-6 .

. 2G9

13 .

.

. 358

18, 19 .

. 100

18 .

2

. 300

19 .

. 1S7

19 .

1

. 125

19 .

1

. 12!» 24 .

3

. 346

IV. 1-3

>

. 62 VI.

. 57

2-3

. 110

.

1

. 369

3

3

. 297

.

2

43, 157

3

5

. 370

233, 370

4-9

. 163

.

3

155, 229

4 .

4,5 .

. 370

.

3-5 .

. 158

10 .

1-2 .

. 370

1 .

4

. 399

10 .

2-4 .

. 67

1 .

4f.

. 405

10 .

5 118,

144, 402

If. .

.

. 162

11 13

114

2 .

. 191

11-14 .

.

. 63

2 .

1

. 130

14 .

3

346, 354

2 .

3

. 185

15 .

5 335,

359, 409

2f. .

.

194, 298

15 .

6

. 332

2,4

.

. 234

17 .

1-3 .

. 187

3 .

1

196, 292

V. 1 .

0-12 .

. 104

3 .

2

. 406

1 .

lf>

268

3 .

3

172, 195

2

2

. 125

4 .

1-4 .

. 158

3 .

3

. 333

4 .

2-3 .

. 218

3 .

4

. 57

4 .

5,7 .

. 158

3 .

7

18

6,7

.

. 291

3, 4

.

19,23

8 .

1

. 297

3-10

.18,57,

215, 281

8 .

2

. 297

328,

397, 411

8 .

3, 6 .

. 298

8-9

. 293

8 .

6

249, 280

9 .

1

. 295

8 .

7f.

. 39

10 .

.

368, 371

8-16

.

148, 168

10 .

1

68, 373

10 .

1

. 214

10 .

1-2 .

. 216

10 .

2

. 197

VI.

VII.

VIII.

INDEX 11

423

Chdndoyya — continued

Chdndogya — continued

ka Khamla

PAGB

Prapatliaka Khamla

PA OR

10 . .

5-6 .

.292f. VIII. 12 .

. 3

137, 403

12 .

.

. 202

12 .

. 4

134, 267

14 .

.

71, 214

12 .

. 4-5

. 269

14 .

2

. 356

14 .

.

113, 294

15 .

1-2 .

. 81

15 .

. 85, 367, 370 f.

1 .

57, 347

385

1 .

2-3 .

. 76

CTMilcd

1 .

3

18,354

6 .

.

. 384

1-14

.

. 100

14 .

,

. 384

1-15

, .

. 115

17-18

.

. 222

3 .

1

. 274

10 .

1

. 190

Dhydnabindu

15 .

.

. 103

* 3 .

. 395

15-24 .

.

. 402

4 .

.

. 392

19-23 .

.

. 275

11-13

.

. 389

23 .

.

. 144

14-16

.

. 287

24 .

1

. 81

18 .

. 391

25 .

. 152

22

394

25 .

1

. 165

25 .

2

. 163

Gaudapdda

(Mdij dtikya-Kd rikd)

26 .

2

. 350

I .

. 3-4 .

. 145

1 .

1

. 393

9

346, 354

1 .

3

169, 190

409

1 .

5 141,

148, 209

12-16 .

. 311

1 .

6

. 209

16

352, 363

1,14 .

.

. 401

2 .

. 1

. 301

3 .

1-2 .

. 76

3 .

. 25

. 155

3 .

2

210, 345

26

. 150

3 .

4 137,

308, 403

33 f. .

. 309

3 .

5

. 131

35

. 138

4 .

1

138, 205

4 .

. 11-31 .

. 156

4 .

2 138,

233, 354

30

. 345

4 .

3

. 210

33

. 305

5 .

3

217, 358

47-52 .

. 235

6 .

1

. 288

81

. 138

6 .

1-5 .

. 358

98

. 345

6 .

3 . 298, 307 f .

6 .

6

289, 359

Hamsa

7 . .

1

14, 75

3 .

.

. 284

7f. .

. 175

4

391

7-12

. 94

6

287

10 .

2

. 304

10, 11-12

.

. 298

is'd

11 .

1

. 307

1 .

. 176,

235, 405

12 .

1

. 354

2 .

.

355, 409

INDEX II

' /nil — continued

KAthaJca — continued

3 .

4 .

PAGE

. 78
1 9( )

II. 21 ...
22 .
23 . . 58, 78,
24 .
25 .
III. 3 ...
4 ...

PAGE
. 149
. 152
177, 363, 407
. 72
. 222
. 274

4-5.
6-7.

. 149
352

8 .
9-11
12-14
15-17

1-2

4 .

5 .

6 .

3 .
3-4

8 .
12 .
18-23
19

. 148, 212
. 84
. 155, 235
. 282

Jdbdla

. 380
. 295, 369, 373 f.
376 f., 380
. 380, 382
. 377 f., 380

Kaivalya
. 27
. 73
. 153
. 300
. 353
99*

10-11 .
10-13 .
13 .
15 .
IV. 1 . . .
3-5

. 201
. 249
. 386
. 149, 153
. 84

137

4 152
5, 12 . . . 354
6-7 .... 170
9 173
10-11 . 44, 152, 157 f., 162
235, 405
12-13 .... 170
V. 2 204

3 . . 97ft

6 ...
7 ...

9-11
12 .

. 153
197, 296, 338
. 166
351

Kanthns'ruti
1,2 . . . .374
2 ... .138, 380 f.
2, 3 ... 378, 381
4 . . 295, 375, 380 f., 382
5 . . .379 f., 381 f.

KdtJtdJca
Valll
1 122 255

13 .

212

15 .

137 f 403

VI. 1 .

203 f

7 ...

274

7-8.

201

7-11
8 ...
9

. 249
. 152

•70

3 .

407

10-11,17
12 .
12-13 .
12-15 .

KaushUaki
Adhyaya
I. ... 18, 24,
2 ...
2, 3
3

. 386
. 404
. 84
. 351

57, 215, 411
. 197,360
. 337
358

17 .

64

II. 1 6

77

6 .
7-9.
8 .
12 .
14 .
15 .

. 274
. 78,397
. 72
. 385
. 153, 155
. 390

18 .
20 .

. 147, 155, 403
. 78, 152 f.. 177

INDEX II

425

Kauslritalti — continued

Mdhdndrdyana

Adliyayu

J'AGE

Anuvaka

PAGE

1

. 174

_ _ _

6 . :

. 131, 258

.
8

.

. 367

7 ...

190, 199, 247

8 .

.2 .

. 365

II.

1-2 .

. 15 f., 89

10 .

.1 .

. 152

5 ...

. 124, 276

10 .

. 22

. 37

8 9

. 218

61 o

10

. 337

.

— LA . •

OQO

Ill

21, 118, 134

.

1Q

~ " '

otM

114 218

3

279 307

10 •

62 .

. 11

63' 367

3-4.

. 117, 139

62-64

.

. 10

4 .

. 118

nn

Q

9Q4

7 .

. 272

63 .

• O . .

. 21

• ZlC/^

. 385

8 . . 44,

144, 170, 176

64 .

.

63, 123

205,

210, 234, 272

IV. .

. . I7f.,

24, 38, 87, 89
115, 208, 215

Mai tray ana
Prapathaka

17, 18 .

. 89

I. ' .

122, 255

19 .

208, 288, 369

1 .

. 64

19-20 .

. 307

2 ....

. 372

3 ....

. 284

Ka iishHaki Urdhm ana

4 ...

219

25 . .1

. 326

II.

3 ....

. 27

6 ....

172, 275

Khanda
(I-)'

Ken a

2
2-8 .

. 138
. 139

[II.

IV.

2 ... 193,
4 ....
3 ....

211, 262

. 285
70, 373

I.

3

. 83 f.

VI.

1-8.

. 119

4f. .

14

3,5 ...

. 390

4-8 .

. 269

3,25 ...

. 385

(II.)

11

83, 404

4, 9 33

275

9 ....

. 125

351

(in.-n
(in.)

(IV.)

'.) 14-28.
17-23 .
29-30 .
31

. 174
. 205
. 154
. 181, 204

10 .
11-13 .
15 .
17 .

. 282
. 247
. 153
152, 224

33

. 59

18 ..

385,388

19 . . . 85,

311, 394

Ksh arikd

19, 20 ...

. 389

2

. 387 f., 389

20, 21 ...

. 392

3

389

22 .

392

4 ...

.388f.

22, 24 .

. 395

6 f . .

389

23 .

386

8f. .

. 394

23, 27 ...

. 146

15-17 .

. 290

24 •

138, 235

21 .

387

24, 26, 28

390

426

INDEX II

Maitrfiyana —continued

MunrfaJca —continued

Prapathaka

PACK

Mund. Kliani

hi

PACK

VI.

27 .

. 219

11. 1

g

27-28 .

. 283

2

. 1

131

27, 31 .

. 284

2

3 4

-ci

27, 38 .

. 288

2

- 4

390

28 .

. 395

o

n

28, 38 .

. 393

2 . .8 346, 3:,L'. 38 1

29 .

11, 73

2

.9 .

152

30 .

. 387

2 .

. 10

137

34 .

. 125,352 IH. 1 .

. 1,2 . .

260

VII.

1 -5

. 275

2

. 1

287

8-10

. 65

2

. 2

352

11 .

. 262,311

2 .

. 5

152

2

. G 27,50,316,361

MAvAAlaja

2 .

.8 .

352

3 .

. 300

2 .

. 10, 11 .

73

3-4

. 291

2 .

. 11

11

4 ...

. 305

5 ...

308

\7V» /7ft 7» i* > i / 7 1 /

G .

222

1 .

A T 1? 1 1(1 111 It II ?(

391

1 .

235, 299, 310

3-4

217

12 .

. 386, 390

6-7

. *

391

Manu

12 .
17

.

215
138

I.

9 13

187

37 .

193

43-48 .

. 292

Nris ii'n h apilrvatdpan lya

[I.

89 f .

. 274

Upan.

III.

7G .

. 219

I. 3

12
225

II. 1

Minulaka

IV. 1

207

Mund.

Khanda

V. 2 .

.

215

I.

1 . .3

. 157

6 .

.

217

1 . .5

. 148

1 . . 6

. 152, 404

Nrisimhottaratapaniya

1 . .7

. 164

Khanda

1 ft Q

r>.lQ f

1

178

1 0, J

2 . .10

. 338

2 .

. 171,

312

3 ...

. 232

8

312

II.

1 ...

. 206

10 .

44, 201,

405

1 . .1

. 202

1 . . 2, 3

.249f.

Paramaharhsa

1 . .3

. 267

1 .

378

1 . .4

. 163

2 .

.

382

1 . .5

. 338

3 .

. 378,

381

1 . .7

. 369 4

382

INDEX II

427

Prdndynihotra

Riyveda — continued

PAGE

Mand. Hymn

PAGE

1-2 ...

. 125

VII. 89 .

. 340

2 ....

. 292

104.

. 3

. 322

3-4

64, 123

IX. 113.

. 7-11 .

. 321

X. 10 .

. 8

. 320

Pras'na

14 .
14 .

.If. .
. 10

. 319
. 320

Pras 'na

I.

9 ....

63

72 .

.

. 182

9-10

. 338

72 .

. 4-6 .

. 190

10 .

. 69

81 .

.

. 182

13, 15 ...

. 295

81 .

. 1

75, 165

II.

2-4.

. 104 f.

82 .

.

. 182

4 ...

102

82 .

. 6

229

5 13

107

83 .

. 15

. 318

III.

1

261

85 .

. 5

. 336

3 ... 119,

211, 259

90 .

. 106,

139, 182

5

. 279

188, 206

6 ....

. 290

90 .

2

. 229

IV.

2 ....

. 271

90 .

. 3

. 165

2-3.

. 279

90 .

. 13-14 .

107, 267

5 ....

. 304

121.

. . 182,

205, 248

7ff..

.248f.

121.

. 1

187, 199

8 ....

. 192

125.

.

. 182

v.

. 390

129

182

5 ....

. 386

129.

. 1

. 128

6 ....

. 308

129.

2

. 229

VI.

3-4.

. 102

129.

. 3

187, 190

5 .

140, 403

154.

2

. 66

6 ....

. 268

S'anJcara

Rdmapilrvatdpan'tya

I. 4 .

. 8-10 .

. 251

43, 45 ...

. 214

II. 1 .

. 36

. 221

71-72 .

. 217

2 .

. 10, 14 .

. 193

84 .

12,73

3 .

7 .

. 266

87,89 .

. 217

3 .

. 22

. 264

92

127

4 .

. 6

264, 270

III. 2 .

. 17

. 156

Riyveda

IV. 2 .

. 8

. 280

Mand.

Hymn

i.

125 . 2-6 .

. 319

Sdnkhya-Kdrt'M

164 . 46

229, 398

1

255

IV.

5 . . 5

. 322

3

25?

26 . .1

. 317

21 .

.

. 246

27 . . 1

. 317

38-40

.

. 282

VI.

47 . .18

229, 318

62 .

.

. 241

428

INDEX II

•Vr»

witita

S'vetfa'ratarf

i — con tinned

PAGE

Adhyava

PAGl

1
2 .

37,

374 f.
), 379

I- * 0 . .
8, 9, 12 .

• !>r

4 .

. 279,

379 f.

14 .

3^0

Sarvopa » ishatsa m

15, 16
II. 1-5.

. .' '.'*)

5-8.

.

299

6-7.

RJ

9f. .

.

283

8 .

J~J

9-13

146

8-15

' 3r

10 .

275

i (\

"Y~

16 .

•

282

1U .

12-13 .

-ftr

19 .

.

207

16-17

JJJ

21 .

.

127

HI. 1-6. .

. . . X9

S'atapatha

Brahmana

2
4 .

. 2^0

. 200

Kaiida Adhy. Brahm.

9 .

. 2dl3

II. 3 .

3.9.

32(3

11,21 .

VI. 1 .

1 .

183

19 .

JK)

1 .

1.1.

128

20 .

f&2

o .

2 4

33 K

IV. 1 .

X. 1 .

4. 14 .

ozo
326

1, 11

223

1 .

5.4. 323

326

12 .

•"ivu

'2
3 .
4 .
5 .
6 .

0. 19 .
3. 5-8
3. 10 .
4 . 15 . 323,
3 . . 230,

326
109
327
343

399

6 .
6-7.
10 .

v. I8: *

. isp

. 1\7, 2^0
. 1 X8, 2^6, 406

343 f.,

402 2 .

. 2^0

6 .

3. 2

408

2—6 7— 1°

XI. 2 .

3. . 75,

166

3 .

' £$i

2 .

6. 14 .

326

5 .

^

2 .

7. 33 .

325

6 .

"

3 .

3.1.

221

8-9.

fatt

4 .

4.1.

340

9 .

TCI

XII. 9 .

1.1.

324

12 .

M

9 .

3. 12 .

327

13 .

?Sr

XIII. 7 .

1 . 1

991

VI. 3-4.

. ' ' T^T

8 .

1 . 5

*d W 1

QOfi

4

23^, 2M, 253

tjZl\J

5 .

. 2fy 22J

S'vetfis-vatara
Adhvaya

10 .
11 .

. 1^, 246

I. 1 . .

Rf

Hi o

'fy, -^4^

2 .
3 .

4, 11

.

*

—12
12 .
13 .
14 .

. 2^.3

. . . art

5 .

.

2^8

17 .

jXo

//^/7«

INDEX II

429

S'vetds'vatara— continued

Talavakdra Up. Brdhm.

Adhyaya

VI.

17-18 .

PAUK

. 247

I. 60 .

PAGB
. 105

18 .

2\X)

60 .

. 5.

. 277

19 .

. 1^2, iVo

II. 1 .

. 16

. 277

21 .

. 3^7 f., 3r*3^

III. 1-2.

.

. 110

22 .

. M, ^7,^9, ^3 IV. 22 .

. 2-3 .

. 277

Taittiriya

Bmhmana

Tejobindu

Adhyaya

Khanda

1

391

II.

2.9.

1 . . .128

7 .

.

. 392

III.

10 . 11 .

1 . 325

8 .

. 146

10 . 11 .
11 . 8 .

2 . . .326
6 . . .326

Vdjastineyi tiainhitd

12 . 9 .
12 . 9 .

7 . .21,230,397
8 . . .343

31 .
32 .

. 18

. 8.

. 343

. 223

34 .

. 1-6 .

183, 271

Taittiriya

Veddntasdra

Valli Anuvaka

43 .

. 207

I.

1 .

. 119

93-104 .

. 275

3 .

15

94-95

. 279

4

3 . . . 370

94-98

. 264

9 .

69, 365

97 .

280

11

. 293, 371

120.

291

II. .

.

10, 34, 82, 97, 144

128.

193

1 .

. 126, 170, 194

If. .

. 283

Yoyas'iras

3 .

. 274 2

.

. 388

4 ...

58, 354, 404

4,7.

. 393

5 .

64, 146

10 .

. 395

6 .

.24, 75, 172, 185

195, 234, 245, 406

Yoijatattva

7 .

98, 129, 204, 211

3-5.

.

. 220

8 .

. 114, 143, 145

7

. 391

9 .

. 351

9-11

171, 393

III. .

10, 34, 69, 92, 144

12

.

. 389

1 .

. 116, 180, 222

15

.

387

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